<As recall, some years ago the people creating genetically modified crops used antibiotic resistant 'marker' genes to enable it easily to be tested whether the intended gene had also been transferred to the plants> I just curious how they managed to use antibiotic resistant genes to to quickly identify if a plant had picked up a gene. In GM bacteria they do this then kill off all the extra unmodified bacteria using that antibiotic so only the modified ones survive generally. How the heck would they do that with crops? If they were sequencing for the gene they could just look for the one transferred rather than adding another. Am I missing something here? That simply doesn't make sense to me, but i'm not any form of molecular biologist either. Also epigenetics is the modification of expression of existing genes no? That would mean they simply turned on or off (in this case on I guess) an existing resistance gene ya? Jeremy West Michigan *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html