Chapters authored
Biosafety Issues of Unintended Horizontal Transfer of Recombinant DNA
Horizontal or lateral gene transfer is the transfer of genetic material from one organism to another organism associated with the unnatural way of reproduction. This way of genetic exchange happens by the stable transfer of genetic material from donor organisms, followed by heritable incorporation to the genome of the recipient organisms. The first explanation of a horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has been a major advance in molecular biology and genetics. Microorganisms like bacteria can acquire genetic material from a variety of sources. The most common DNA transfer mechanisms between microorganisms are conjugation, transformation, and transduction, but there are also other diverse mechanisms of genetic material exchange occurring in nature. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) often contain recombined genes acquired from different species to enable the expression of new traits in even unlikely or unrelated species. For this, the unintended HGT of rDNA to both prokaryotes and eukaryotes could raise biosafety issues to both human and animal health and the environment. From the current scientific perspective and evidence, the unintended HGT from GMOs to other organisms presents negligible risks to human health and safety or the environment due to the rarity of such events relative to those HGT events that occur in nature.
Part of the book: Genetic Transformation in Crops