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.