A lot of anti-GMO rhetoric is based on the mistaken idea that genetic material is never transferred from species to species in the natural world. The opposite, of course, is true. Genetic coding (DNA, RNA, etc.) is the common language of life, there is no natural barrier to foreign DNA per se. Immune systems are prime to look out for particular sequences as foreign or dangerous, but others are able to move about uninhibited. This is the basis of the enormous amount of genetic experimentation that is currently ongoing. Again, we are faced with a false dichotomy which posit an essential difference between how nature handles genetic modification and how humans do. 

> The microbial world is enormously promiscuous, with abundant opportunities for genetic exchange via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). For example, it is estimated that over 80% of all prokaryote genes were horizontally transferred at some point during their evolutionary history. HGT may occur through several routes, including the uptake of free DNA in the environment, the exchange of conjugative plasmids, or during infection by bacteriophages or transposable elements capable of integrating into the host genome. There may be substantial benefits associated with genetic exchange with many of these foreign genetic elements. <

Pete

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