Martin, Is this true of all "new" GM crops, or just newly developed crops. In other words, will GM crops developed years ago that are offered for sale next year no longer have this antibiotic resistant marker gene? Is this true of just certain companies or all? The US or worldwide? If these genes have indeed transfered to weeds such as rape, and with the cases in Canada where GM markers have been found in crops grown by farmers that never intended to grow GMO's (due to drift from other farms), what is projected time period until these genes are spread nationwide? Even if all companies worldwide stopped using the antibiotic resistant genes today, the genie seems to be out of the bag. Sort of like deciding not to import more african bees to the Americas after that first swarm had left the area. -----Original Message----- From: Martin Damus In a bee-related nutshell - need we worry about horizontal transfer of GM genes to bee gut bacteria? GM companies no longer use antibiotic resistance as a marker gene (ah, but why?), so it is unlikely that *new* crops will transfer antibiotic resistance to bee gut bacteria.