At 8:24 AM -0500 97/6/4, curtis spacek wrote:
>the question I pose is as follows;was the genetically modified
>material found in bacteria simply the result of consumption or did the
>modified gene actually become part of the genetic chain of the bacteria?
>would not a grasshopper which fed on gm plant matter,when tested,reveal
>gm material from the food source?would this material be in the
>bloodstream or the gut,or both?or would the dna chain of the hopper be
>damamged and  altered to accept the modified gene from the food source?I
>personally doubt this scenario.how would one separate the bacteria dna
>from the dna of nutrients consumed by the bacteria?

        As I keep saying, we have to wait until the work is scientifically
reported.
However, meanwhile we can be fairly confident that nobody would bother to
mention as sensational the trivial finding that Curtis first mentions,  as
distinct from actual incorporation of the plant DNA covalently in the
microbial DNA, the second possibility.
        There certainly are examples of such 'jumping genes' in several
kingdoms of biology.  The question is whether in this rumoured case the
microbes did incorporate into their DNA the transgene(s) which had been
artificially inserted into the plant.  If so, the explanation will
presumably rely on the known higher tendency of transgenes inserted with
the CaMV promoter to jump further in horizontal gene transfer.

R


-
Robt Mann
consultant ecologist
P O Box 28878   Remuera, Auckland 1005, New Zealand
                (9) 524 2949