WEEDS have been shown for the first time to become stronger and fitter by cross-breeding with genetically engineered crops, in this case sunflowers. And at the same time, a team in France has demonstrated how easily weeds might be able to swap genes with the GM strains of sugar beet already in field trials.
The findings emphasise the need for developers of GM crops to be cautious about which traits they introduce into plants, in case they spread irreversibly to weeds. They also strengthen the case for using technologies that would prevent gene spread altogether, argues Jeremy Sweet of the…
