So far, researchers have developed about 60 experimental wheat varieties with multiple low-resistance genes.
Yet there are no substantiated reports of antibiotic-resistance genes jumping from a plant to a bacterium.
Using traditional breeding techniques, they are introducing the resistance genes into pines on test sites in America.
ECONOMIST: Genetic engineering: Gone is the forest primeval | The
Moreover, bacteria in their natural state already contain thousands of antibiotic-resistance genes.
The discovery that animals in pristine environments have few bacteria with resistance genes makes it likely that much of the antibiotic resistance found in these other species is a result of human influence, rather than natural gene-circulation.
ECONOMIST: Are the bugs in wild animals resistant to antibiotics?
High levels of antibiotic resistance in remote environments would imply the existence of vast natural reservoirs of the genes for such resistance.
ECONOMIST: Are the bugs in wild animals resistant to antibiotics?
For three years Wambugu labored in Monsanto's labs, trying to splice genes for viral resistance into the sweet potato.
These marker genes often confer resistance to antibiotics to the plants.
Studying 21 populations of insects, which had been collected from infested apartments close to the university, the team discovered that the genes associated with resistance to pyrethroids were located in the bed bugs' tough outer shell.
Such sterile fields will offer little or no food or shelter to wildlife, and there is already evidence that the genes for herbicide resistance can spread to wild relatives of crop plants, leaving us with weeds resistant to weedkiller.
These could bypass the bed bugs' molecular armoury or work by interfering with the genes associated with insecticide resistance.
If that sort of reaction greets the idea of plants that have had single genes for things such as herbicide resistance transferred into them, what will be the response to more heavily engineered plants and animals?
The team tested the bacteria that they found in samples from ten bears for the presence of blaTEM genes, which are known to encode resistance to a commonly used class of antibiotics that includes penicillins and cephalosporins.
ECONOMIST: Are the bugs in wild animals resistant to antibiotics?
The scientists also believe that unlike with insecticides, where as many as 80% of mosquitoes are no longer killed by the compounds, the insects are unlikely to develop resistance to the fungus as it targets many different genes in the parasite.
"We're looking for genes that could improve taste or color" and plants with good drought resistance, said botanist Sarada Krishnan, Denver Botanic Gardens director of horticulture.
Orion Genomics hopes to start pulling in revenues next year from its proprietary method of sequencing, mapping and cloning agricultural genes--technology that can be used to improve crop yield, develop pest resistance or help plants survive drought, flooding and cold.
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