Abstract
Concerns regarding the commercial release of genetically engineered (GE) crops include naturalization, introgression to sexually compatible relatives and the transfer of beneficial traits to native and weedy species through hybridization. To date there have been few documented reports of escape leading some researchers to question the environmental risks of biotech products. In this study we conducted a systematic roadside survey of canola (Brassica napus) populations growing outside of cultivation in North Dakota, USA, the dominant canola growing region in the U.S. We document the presence of two escaped, transgenic genotypes, as well as non-GE canola, and provide evidence of novel combinations of transgenic forms in the wild. Our results demonstrate that feral populations are large and widespread. Moreover, flowering times of escaped populations, as well as the fertile condition of the majority of collections suggest that these populations are established and persistent outside of cultivation.
Highlights
Crop and forage species cover more than one quarter of the Earth’s land surface [1], but the ecological and evolutionary influences of agricultural species on native and weedy plants have been difficult to measure
In the U.S, GE canola was first approved for commercial release in 1998 and most (.90%) of the acreage planted in the U.S is genetically engineered for herbicide resistance [10]
To determine if populations of escaped canola are composed of multiple genotypes, multiple plants were sampled and tested for the presence of CP4 EPSPS or PAT proteins at 9 randomly selected, large canola populations Test strips and plant voucher specimens are archived at the University of Arkansas
Summary
Crop and forage species cover more than one quarter of the Earth’s land surface [1], but the ecological and evolutionary influences of agricultural species on native and weedy plants have been difficult to measure. Canola cultivars engineered for glyphosate and glufosinate herbicide resistance escaped cultivation shortly after their unconditional commercial release in Canada in 1995 [16] and more recent research has documented widespread escape and persistence of transgenic canola in Canadian roadside populations [17,18]. Since these discoveries, feral canola populations or nonengineered populations expressing biotech traits have been reported from Great Britain, France, Australia and Japan [2,3,19,20,21]. In the U.S, GE canola was first approved for commercial release in 1998 and most (.90%) of the acreage planted in the U.S is genetically engineered for herbicide resistance [10]
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