Analysis of the Ecological Risks Associated with Genetically Engineered Marine Microorganisms

Abstract

Research is proceeding throughout the world to develop genetically engineered marine microorganisms (GEMMs) for a wide variety of environmental and industrial uses. It is possible therefore that the first uncontained applications of transgenic organisms in the marine environment will involve microorganisms rather than fish or shellfish. As products are readied for experimental or commercial trials, regulators will be required to assess the potential ecological risks posed by these organisms as part of the approval process. This will present a challenge similar to that faced by risk assessors and regulators in 1984 and 1985 when the transgenic microorganism Pseudomonas syringae, also known as ice-minus, was developed for agricultural use in the terrestrial environment. At that time we knew almost nothing about interactions between wild and transgenic organisms, and methods for detecting and monitoring gene flow between transgenic and wild organisms were rudimentary. Similarly, little is known today about how GEMMs are likely to interact with wild marine micro- and macroorganisms or how gene flow occurs in the marine environment (Edwards, 1993). In fact, less is now known about marine ecology than was known about terrestrial ecosystem function in the mid-1980s. As a result, the level of scientific uncertainty, and the challenge to risk assessment, associated with transgenic marine microorganisms is greater than was the case with terrestrial products 15 years ago.