Whats unspeakable in horizontal gene transfer?
Horizontal gene transfer is the transfer of genes across species including those in different kingdoms. It goes counter to both modern genetics and the theory of evolution. Disappointingly, little of the momentous significance of the process comes across in a volume replete with detailed examples.GM foods – a topical area – is covered in the shortest chapter by Syvanen, who recalls how, when GM crops were first approved, the US Food and Drug Administration responded to fears of the spread of antibiotic resistance genes by denying that this could take place.He himself, however, was just then trying to convince his colleagues that horizontal gene transfer between life’s kingdoms was a natural process. If so, ‘it would make more sense to defend the transgenic crop industry by arguing that gene transfer is a natural phenomena [sic] than by arguing that it does not occur’.Syvanen claims to have screened for antibiotic resistance genes in the faeces of mice fed transgenic plant material, and
