[escepticos] Genes saltarines

["Antoni Mont" <josep.mont@...>]

Hola a todo el mundo,

Dado que esta corrala tiene una cierta afición a los temas relacionados
con la biología, ahí va una noticia que viene en el New Scientist de
esta semana en relación con la polémica sobre alimentos modificados
genéticamente.

Al parecer un equipo Holandés ha llevado a cabo experimentos con un
aparato digestivo artificial que muestran que el DNA de bacterias
modificadas genéticamente pueden sobrevivir el tiempo suficiente en el
intestino grueso como para pasar los genes modificados a la flora
intestinal. Según parece, tal posibilidad es remota pero no nula. El
peligro estaría, en este caso, en la transferencia de genes resistentes
a antibióticos.

Sigue el fragmento final del artículo:

<<The researchers hope to carry out the crucial test of whether foreign
bacteria and genetically modified (GM) foods transfer their genes when
gut microbes are depleted. "We plan to ask the European Union to fund
further research," says Havenaar.

Finding the answers could resolve a long-standing debate. In Britain, a
report from the House of Lords select committee for the European
Communities last week judged it "extremely unlikely" that genes
introduced into edible crops migrate into gut bacteria. But the new
findings show more research is essential, says Derek Burke, former chair
of Britain's Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes. "We can
only say that the risk is not zero," he says. "Anything that would help
put numbers on this, would be useful."

Despite its confidence that genes are unlikely to jump from GM foods,
the Lords' report called for the use of antibiotic-resistance genes "to
be phased out as quickly as possible". But in the US, maize carrying
these genes will continue to be harvested, mainly for cattle feed.>>
© Copyright New Scientist, RBI Limited 1999

Saludos,

Toni