EXTENSIVE GENE CONTAMINATION REVEALED IN NEW STUDY, GENES FROM ENGINEERED GRASS SPREAD FOR MILES....

Genes From Engineered Grass Spread for Miles, Study Finds

Extensive gene contamination revealed in new study

“Our concern is that if it was to escape onto public land, we wouldn't know how to control it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/business/21grass.html?th

Genes >From Engineered Grass Spread for Miles, Study Finds

Teak Phillips/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A test plot of the herbicide-resistant strain of creeping bentgrass last
spring at the St. Louis Country Club.

By ANDREW POLLACK

Published: September 21, 2004

A new study shows that genes from genetically engineered grass can spread
much farther than previously known, a finding that raises questions about
the straying of other plants altered through biotechnology and that could
hurt the efforts of two companies to win approval for the first
bioengineered grass.

The two companies, Monsanto and Scotts, have developed a strain of
creeping bentgrass for use on golf courses that is resistant to the widely used
herbicide Roundup. The altered plants would allow groundskeepers to spray
the herbicide on their greens and fairways to kill weeds while leaving the
grass unscathed.

But the companies' plans have been opposed by some environmental groups as
well as by the federal Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Critics worry that the grass could spread to areas where it is not wanted
or transfer its herbicide resistance to weedy relatives, creating superweeds
that would be immune to the most widely used weed killer. The Forest
Service said earlier this year that the grass "has the potential to adversely
impact all 175 national forests and grasslands."

Some scientists said the new results, to be published online this week by
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, did not
necessarily raise alarms about existing genetically modified crops like
soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. There are special circumstances, they
say, that make the creeping bentgrass more environmentally worrisome, like
its extraordinarily light pollen.

Because And the study suggests that some previous studies
of the environmental impScotts has plans to develop other varieties of bioengineered
grasses for use on household lawns, the new findings could have implications well
beyond the golf course. act of genetically modified plants have been too
small to capture the full spread of altered genes.

Scotts says that because naturally occurring bentgrass has not caused
major weed problems, the bioengineered version would pose no new hazards. And
any Roundup-resistant strains that might somehow develop outside of
intentionally planted areas could be treated with other weed killers, the
company said.

In the new study, scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency
found that the genetically engineered bentgrass pollinated test plants of the
same species as far away as they measured -about 13 miles downwind from a test
farm in Oregon. Natural growths of wild grass of a different species were
pollinated by the gene-modified grass nearly nine miles away.
Previous studies had measured pollination between various types of
genetically modified plants and wild relatives at no more than about one
mile, according to the paper.

"It's the longest distance gene-flow study that I know of," said Norman C.
Ellstrand, an expert on this subject at the University of California,
Riverside, who was not involved in the study but read the paper.

"The gene really is essentially going to get out," he added. "What this
study shows is it's going to get out a lot faster and a lot further than
people anticipated."

One reason the grass pollen was detected so far downwind was the size of
the farm - 400 acres with thousands of plants. Most previous studies of gene
flow have been done on far smaller fields, meaning there was less pollen
and a lower chance that some would travel long distances. Those small studies,
the new findings suggest, might not accurately reflect what would happen
once a plant covers a large area.

"This is one of the first really realistic studies that has been done,"
said Joseph K. Wipff, an Oregon grass breeder. Dr. Wipff was not involved in
the latest study but had conducted an earlier one that found pollen from
genetically engineered grass traveling only about 1,400 feet. That test,
though, used less than 300 plants covering one-tenth of an acre.
The effort to commercialize the bentgrass has attracted attention because
it raises issues somewhat different from those surrounding the existing
genetically modified crops.

It would be the first real use of genetic engineering in a suburban
setting, for example, rather than on farms. And the grass is perennial, while corn,
soybeans, cotton and canola are planted anew each year, making them easier
to control.

Bentgrass can also cross-pollinate with at least 12 other species of
grass, while the existing crops, except for canola, have no wild relatives in the
places they are grown in the United States. And crops like corn and
soybeans have trouble surviving off the farm, while grass can easily survive in the
wild.

The bentgrass, moreover, besides having very light pollen - a cloud can be
seen rising from grass farms - has very light seeds that disperse readily
in the wind. It can also reproduce asexually using stems that creep along the
ground and establish new roots, giving rise to its name.

Because of the environmental questions, the application for approval of
the bioengineered bentgrass is encountering delays at the Department of
Agriculture, which must decide whether to allow the plant to be
commercialized.

After hearing public comments earlier this year, the department has now
decided to produce a full environmental impact statement, which could take
a year or more, according to Cindy Smith, who is in charge of biotech
regulation.

Ms. Smith, in an interview yesterday, said the new study "gives some
preliminary information that's different from previous studies that we're
aware of." But more conclusive research is needed, she said.

Bentgrass is already widely used in its nonengineered form by golf course
operators, mainly for greens but also for fairways and tee areas, in part
because it is sturdy even when closely mown. It is rarely used on home
lawns because it must be cared for intensively. And creeping bentgrass does not
cross-pollinate with the types of grass typically used on lawns,
scientists said.

Executives at Scotts, a major producer of lawn and turf products based in
Marysville, Ohio, said the genetically engineered bentgrass would be sold
only for golf courses. They said golf courses cut their grass so often
that the pollen-producing part of the plants would never develop.

And because nonengineered creeping bentgrass has not caused weed problems
despite being used on golf courses for decades, they said, the genetically
modified version would pose no new problems.

"There has been pollen flow but it has not created weeds," Michael P.
Kelty, the executive vice president and vice chairman of Scotts, said in an
interview yesterday. He said Scotts and Monsanto, the world's largest
developer of genetically modified crops, had spent tens of millions of
dollars since 1998 developing the bioengineered bentgrass.

The questions about the grass come after Monsanto, which is based in St.
Louis, said earlier this year that it was dropping its effort to introduce
the world's first genetically engineered wheat, citing concerns by farmers
that its use in foods might face market opposition.

Scotts is also developing genetically modified grass for home lawns, like
herbicide-tolerant and slow-growing types that would need less mowing. But
those products still need several more years of testing, Dr. Kelty said,
adding that the company would avoid types of grass that could become
weeds. "We don't want to put a product out there that is going to be a threat,"
he said.

Scotts and Monsanto have received some support for their argument from the
Weed Science Society of America, a professional group, which conducted a
review of the weed tendencies of creeping bentgrass and its close relatives
at the request of the Department of Agriculture.

"In the majority of the country these species have not presented themselves
as a significant weed problem, historically," said Rob Hedberg, director
of science policy for the society, summarizing the conclusions of the review.
He said that because people have generally not tried to control bentgrass
and similar species with Roundup, known generically as glyphosate, "the
inability to control them with this herbicide is a less significant
issue."

Still, the society's report noted that bentgrass could be considered a
weed by farms that are trying to grow other grass seeds. And the Forest
Service, in comments to the Agriculture Department earlier this year, said that
bentgrass has threatened to displace native species in some national
forests.

John M. Randall, acting director of the Invasive Species Initiative at the
Nature Conservancy, said bentgrass and related species had been a threat
to native grasses in certain preserves that the group helps manage, including
a couple near Montauk Point on eastern Long Island.

Other opponents of the genetically modified grass seized on the results.
"This does confirm what a lot of people feared - expected, really," said
Margaret Mellon, director of the food and environment program for the
Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. "These kinds of distances are
eye-popping."

The new study was done by Lidia S. Watrud and colleagues at an E.P.A.
research center in Corvallis, Ore., who were trying to develop new methods
to assess gene flow, not specifically to study the bentgrass.

They put out 178 potted and unmodified creeping bentgrass plants, which
they called sentinel plants, at various distances around the test farm. They
also surveyed wild bentgrass and other grasses. They collected more than a
million seeds from the plants, growing them into seedlings to test for
herbicide resistance and doing genetic tests.

The number of seeds found to be genetically engineered was only 2 percent
for the sentinel plants, 0.03 percent for wild creeping bentgrass and 0.04
percent for another wild grass. Most of those seeds were found in the
first two miles or so, with the number dropping sharply after that. Still, said
Anne Fairbrother, one of the authors of the report, finding even some
cross pollination at 13 miles "is a paradigm shift in how far pollen might
move."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wind carries GM pollen record distances | New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996421

Wind carries GM pollen record distances

22:00 20 September 04

NewScientist.com news service

Pollen from a genetically modified grass has blown on the wind and
pollinated other grasses up to 21 kilometres away, says a new study. This
distance is “much further than previously measured”, say the authors, and is
thought to be a record for any GM pollen.

The discovery comes as regulators decide whether to allow the planting of
the GM creeping bentgrass on golf course putting greens across the US.
Scientists from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focused on
fields that have been growing GM varieties of creeping bentgrass near Madras
in central Oregon, US, for two years. The experimental grasses are
genetically modified to resist popular herbicides, such as Roundup.

Lidia Watrud and colleagues from the EPA’s National Health and Environmental
Effects Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, collected seeds from wild
grasses growing tens of kilometres around the experimental plots.
They then grew the seeds in greenhouses and tested the growing grasses for
transgenes and resistance to Roundup, which would reveal cross-pollination
with the GM bentgrass.

Extensive contamination

Watrud’s team found extensive gene contamination within 2 km downwind of the
experimental plots. But some pollen went much further. Contaminated grass
seeds turned up across 310 square km, with the most distant find 21 km from
the source.

Only a handful of studies have ever investigated gene flow from crops - GM
or otherwise - at distances greater than a few hundred metres. Studies have
found radish and sunflower genes travelling 1 km, marrow (or squash) genes
travelling 1.3 km and oil-seed rape (or canola) genes travelling up to 3 km.
But the suspicion is that pollen from many crops could travel hundreds of
kilometres on the winds.

“To my knowledge, this is the longest distance reported for GM pollen
dispersal,” says David Quist, whose research into the genetic spread of GM
maize in Mexico caused a row after its publication in Nature in June 2002.
Creeping bentgrass is a favourite of golf course managers, who say it
provides a uniquely smooth surface for putting greens. But weeds can
interrupt the smoothness, so course managers want a grass that is resistant
to the herbicides that kill the weeds.

Wild-land invasion

GM creeping bentgrass has exactly that characteristic and has been tested in
Oregon by seed company Scotts, of Marysville, Ohio, which collaborated on
the EPA study.

But the findings now threaten to derail a bid from Scotts for government
permission to sell the product to golf courses and more widely. Their
efforts have been held up by government agencies who fear that the GM
putting-green grass could invade the country’s wild lands.

Creeping bentgrass grows naturally in many habitats and cross-pollinates
with other grasses of the Agrostis genus. “It is one of the first
wind-pollinated transgenic crops being developed for commercial use,” says
Watrud.

Gina Ramos of the Bureau of Land Management says: “Our concern is that if it
was to escape onto public land, we wouldn't know how to control it.”
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

(DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0405154101)