From Adrian Gibbs
Your reporters Andy Coghlan and Nicola Jones state that there is no evidence that virus-derived genes in GM crops would recombine with genes in an infecting virus (26 July, p 6). But it cannot be ruled out. Several dozen papers published in major refereed journals, such as Science, over the past decade have reported the opposite. Please put the public record straight.
Nicola Jones writes:
The British government’s GM Science Review states that no transfer of genetic material from GM plants to viruses has been seen under field conditions. The report says that a transfer can be made to happen in the lab under specific conditions, but that this “remains a hypothetical situation in the field”.
Canberra, Australia
