Three bee species
were chosen for analyses, i.e., Apis mellifera (honeybee),
Bombus terrestris (bumblebee), and Osmia bicornis (red
mason bee). Bee larvae were collected at the same flowering,
transgenic oilseed rape field. Previous studies based on
cultivation-independent microbial community analyses had
demonstrated that all of these bees harbored a highly
diverse community of bacteria in their guts (Mohr and
Tebbe 2006).

The objective of this research was to analyze whether a
recombinant gene would be transferred from oilseed rape
pollen to larval gut bacteria under field conditions.

A total of 96 bacterial strains belonging to four different
phylogenetic groups were isolated in this study by
cultivation on different growth media from the gut of bees.

The failure to detect horizontal gene transfer in this study
confirms experimental evidence and theoretical considerations
that horizontal gene transfer of herbicide-resistant
genes from plants to microorganisms is an extremely
unlikely event

Field study results on the probability and risk of a horizontal
gene transfer from transgenic herbicide-resistant oilseed
rape pollen to gut bacteria of bees
Kathrin I. Mohr & Christoph C. Tebbe

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2007) 75:573–582

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