- While the nation's attention was occupied by war and
terrorism, U.S. scientists quietly conducted the world's first confined
field test of a genetically modified insect.
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- In October, hundreds of genetically modified moths were
released into an Arizona cotton field. The test is bound to stir up
controversy:
It is a big step toward extending the frontier of genetic manipulation
beyond plants and into the wild kingdom of insects.
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- "This first permit has opened the door," said
Robert Rose, a regulator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who gave
the go-ahead for the historic test. Rose expects other scientists working
with genetically modified insects, including malaria-carrying mosquitoes,
to test their bugs in field cages soon.
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- The tightly controlled release -- the moths were
sterilized
and confined to mesh cages -- was conducted in October under strict
security
at a USDA facility in Phoenix. Afraid of attacks by radical
environmentalists
like the Earth Liberation Front, the four field cages were fenced off and
placed under guard. But with all eyes on anthrax and Afghanistan, the tests
went unreported and activists stayed home.
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- "No one bombed us," said Tom Miller, the
University
of California, Riverside entomologist who bred the pink bollworms used
in the test. "It happened after September 11th. We went off the radar
screen."
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- The researchers were testing the breeding ability of
hundreds of genetically modified pink bollworms. The moths contained a
jellyfish gene that makes them glow green. The glowing gene is a common
"marker gene" that tests the moth's ability to mate; any
offspring
have a glow that's easy to spot.
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- Eventually, the researchers hope to substitute the
harmless
jellyfish gene with a lethal one, taken from a bacterium, that will kill
the moth's larvae. The gene alters the larvae's metabolism to make them
reliant on a chemical unavailable in the wild. The researchers hope
genetically
modified moths will compete successfully with fertile moths in the race
for mates, and will decimate the population by producing larvae that can't
survive outside a lab.
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- The pink bollworm is one of the most destructive cotton
pests in the world; every year the insect's larvae cause millions of
dollars'
worth of damage to the cotton crop. It is controlled only by the liberal
application of harmful pesticides.
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- The October bollworm test was in a cage, but an open
field release of a genetically altered bug is probably only a few years
way, according to government officials and scientists working in the
field.
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- Although it has not yet received a formal application,
the USDA is already planning to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
for an open field test of the pink bollworm. "We want to anticipate
the public concerns," USDA's Rose said. The first public meetings
on the issue are tentatively scheduled for next summer.
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- But the prospect of releasing genetically modified
insects
into the wild is something that makes environmentalists shudder.
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- Environmentalists say there is no way to predict a
modified
gene's effect on an ecosystem, and, once it's out, there's no way to get
the genie -- or demon -- back in the bottle. Genetic changes could
"jump"
to related species, or lead to new diseases, environmentalists warn.
Genetic
modifications may have unforeseen consequences, like the discovery that
genetically modified corn can kill monarch butterflies (although recent
research reached the opposite conclusion). And a furor erupted when it
was discovered that Starlink corn -- a genetically modified plant not
approved
for human consumption -- had crept into the food supply.
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- "We oppose any release of genetically modified
organisms
into the wild," said Craig Culp, a Greenpeace spokesman. "There's
no way to anticipate what will happen generations down the road."
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