Horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes from transgenic plants to bacteria - are there new data to fuel the debate?
Year: 2000
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Several thousand field releases of genetically modified plants (GMP) have been performed during the last decade. Presently, the majority of the GMP tested in the field or already commercialized contain bacterial antibiotic resistance genes. The antibiotic resistance genes are often of importance to select for transformants. However, in some transgenic plants the antibiotic resistance genes under the control of bacterial promotors were not used for the selection of transformants but are remains of the vector construct used for transformation. In any case, the antibiotic resistance genes do not encode desirable traits in commercial plants. Nevertheless the presence of antibiotic resistance genes such as the nptII gene in transgenic plants seemed to be accepted by competent authorities and by the public, this largely based on the fact that antibiotic resistance genes used as markers in transgenic plants were already abundant in environmental bacteria (Smalla et al., 1993), and that bacteria possess highly efficient means such as transferable plasmids or conjugative transposons to exchange genes between bacteria belonging to the same species, or between a wide range of bacterial hosts (Tschape, 1994; Davies, 1994, 1997). Furthermore, so far there was no experimental evidence that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of genetic material from plants to bacteria can occur at all (Becker et al., 1994; Broer et al., 1996; Schluter et al., 1995; Nielsen et al., 1997c). During the last few years the present crisis of antibiotics became more and more evident due to the emergence of bacteria which are resistant to multiple, and sometimes even to all antibiotics (Levy, 1997; Amtsblatt der Europaischen Gemeinschaft, 1998). This has led to a new discussion about the hypothetic acquisition of plant-harbored antibiotic resistance genes from transgenic plants by bacterial communities and the potential impact of such a transfer event. Is it the public health perception that changed, or are there new data on HGT from plants to bacteria that fuel the debate among scientists and in the public? Here we briefly summarize recent research results on the persistence of transgenic plant DNA in soil and horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes from plants to bacteria. These findings mostly obtained under optimized laboratory conditions must be seen in context with the prevalence of the respective antibiotic resistance genes in environmental bacteria, the clinical importance of the respective antibiotics, and, most importantly, the selective pressure by the medical and agricultural use of respective antibiotics.
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2162853223