Re: Genetic engineering, was Unknown Lavandula

At 07:43 AM 5/28/99 -0800, Nan Sterman wrote:
>>Also:  What's our "policy" on genetically engineered plants?  The garden
>>centers here are flooded with annuals named "Million Bells," "surfinia,"
>>Tapien" etc. which look like old familiars (petunias, verbenas, etc.)
>>but have no botanical names. The descriptions refer to extra
>>chromosomes.

My feeling is that hybridizing the old-fashioned way (move pollen from one
plant to another, even across species) is fine. And tinkering around with
things like colchicine  (a chemical that induces mutations; the word may be
spelled wrong) seems to have no bad effects.

But moving specific DNA fragments from one genus to another in order to
create entirely new features in the target plant has already been proven to
have unexpected and dangerous results -- for example, the recent
observation that pollen from some genetically-engineered corn (which
contains Bt bacteria genes) kills Monarch butterfly caterpillers.  So I am
against it.

Katherine Pyle
Berkeley, California, USA
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