- British scientific researchers have demonstrated for
the first time that genetically modified DNA material from crops is finding
its way into human gut bacteria, raising potentially serious health questions.
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- Although the genetically modified material in most GM
foods poses no health problems, many of the controversial crops have antibiotic-resistant
marker genes inserted into them at an early stage in development.
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- If genetic material from these marker genes can also
find its way into the human stomach, as experiments at Newcastle university
suggest is likely, then people's resistance to widely used antibiotics
could be compromised.
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- The research, commissioned by the food standards agency,
is the world's first known trial of GM foods on human volunteers. It was
last night described as "insignificant" by the agency but as
"dynamite" by Friends of the Earth.
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- The scientists took seven human volunteers who had their
lower intestine removed in the past and now use colostomy bags. After being
fed a meal of a burger containing GM soya and a milkshake, the researchers
compared their stools with 12 people with normal stomachs. They found "to
their surprise" that "a relatively large proportion of genetically
modified DNA survived the passage through the small bowel". None was
found in people who had complete stomachs.
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- But to see if GM DNA might be transferred via bacteria
to the intestine, they also took bacteria from stools in the colostomy
bags and cultivated them. In three of the seven samples they found bacteria
had taken up the herbicide-resistant gene from the GM food at a very low
level.
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- The report added "that transgenes, although surviving
passage through the small intestine, appear to be completely degraded in
the human colon".
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- Michael Antonio, a senior lecturer in molecular genetics
at King's College Medical School, London, last night said that the work
was significant. "To my knowledge they have demonstrated clearly that
you can get GM plant DNA in the gut bacteria. Everyone used to deny that
this was possible."
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- He said there were "lots of inadequacies" in
the research but that did not take away the importance of the main findings.
"It suggests that you can get antibiotic marker genes spreading
around the stomach which would compromise antibiotic resistance. They have
shown that this can happen even at very low levels after just one meal."
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- Marker genes are inserted into GM plants to allow identification
of GM cells or tissue during development. The House of Lords has called
for them to be phased out as swiftly as possible.
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- Last night Friends of the Earth called for an immediate
halt to the use of marker genes in GM crops. "Industry, science and
government advisers have always played down the risk of this happening
and here, at the very first attempt by scientists to look for it, they
find it," said Adrian Bebb, GM foods campaigner.
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- The FSA said the research "showed in real-life conditions
with human volunteers, no GM material survived the passage through the
entire human digestive tract... the research concluded that the likelihood
of functioning DNA being taken up by bacteria in the human or animal gut
is extremely low".
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,756666,00.html
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