JAC Advance Access originally published online on January 28, 2004
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Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2004) 53, 418-431
© 2004 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
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An assessment of the risks associated with the use of antibiotic resistance genes in genetically modified plants: report of the Working Party of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
1 Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD; 2 Central Veterinary Laboratory, New Haw, Surrey KT15 3NB; 3 Ninewells Hospital, Tayside University Hospitals, Dundee DD1 9SY; 4 Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Editorial Office, Birmingham B1 2JS; 5 School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB; 6 Department of Medical Microbiology, City Hospital NHS Trust, Dudley Road, Birmingham B18 7QH, UK
Development of genetically modified (GM) plants is contentious, in part because bacterial antibiotic resistance (AR) genes are used in their construction and often become part of the plant genome. This arouses concern that cultivation of GM plants might provide a reservoir of AR genes that could power the evolution of new drug-resistant bacteria. We have considered bacterial DNA transfer systems (conjugation, transduction and transformation) and mechanisms of recombination (homologous recombination, transposition, site-specific recombination and DNA repair) that together might productively transfer AR genes from GM plants to bacterial cells, but are unable to identify a credible scenario whereby new drug-resistant bacteria would be created. However, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility of rare transfer events that involve novel mechanisms. Hence, we also considered if occasional transfers of AR genes (blaTEM, aph(3'), aadA) from GM plants into bacteria would pose a threat to public health. These AR genes are common in many bacteria and each is found on mobile genetic elements that have moved extensively between DNA molecules and bacterial cells. This gene mobility has already severely compromised clinical use of antibiotics to which resistance is conferred. Accordingly, the argument that occasional transfer of these particular resistance genes from GM plants to bacteria would pose an unacceptable risk to human or animal health has little substance. We conclude that the risk of transfer of AR genes from GM plants to bacteria is remote, and that the hazard arising from any such gene transfer is, at worst, slight.
Keywords: GM plants, transfer of resistance genes, spread of resistance genes, risk-hazard assessment
* Corresponding author. Tel: +44-117-9287897; Fax: +44-117-9287896; E-mail: Peter.M.Bennett{at}bristol.ac.uk
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P. M. Bennett, C. T. Livesey, D. Nathwani, D. S. Reeves, J. R. Saunders, and R. Wise Reply J. Antimicrob. Chemother., November 1, 2004; 54(5): 960 - 960. [Full Text] [PDF]
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