![]() |
||||
![]() |
Home : Risks & Benefits : GE and Antibiotic Resistance | |||
| GE and Antibiotic resistance | ||||
|
||||
|
On This Page:
|
||
|
|
In order to get a handle on this complex issue, its important to understand the distinction between these two terms and how they are related:
The evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a critical issue for human health. When bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic, the antibiotic will no longer kill the bacteria, and thus no longer able to prevent the human disease caused by the bacteria. Many scientists have become increasingly alarmed by the growing number of bacterial strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotics, making the treatment of some diseases very difficult. Widespread antibiotic resistance is caused by the overuse (and misuse) of antibiotics. Bacteria become resistant to a specific antibiotic when they acquire the corresponding antibiotic resistance gene. There are two ways bacteria can acquire an antibiotic resistance gene:
Antibiotic resistance genes are used in the creation of genetically engineered
plants as "selectable markers." Because it is often difficult
to determine in the early stages of the process whether a plant has received
the desired genetic modification or not, scientists engineer plants to
carry both the desired gene plus an antibiotic resistance gene.
Plants (while still tiny seedlings) that have been successfully genetically
engineered will not die on a petri-plate full of the antibiotic-- and
thus also must contain a copy of the other "useful" gene. Of
the GE plants currently marketed in the US, two antibiotic resistance
genes are used: bla, which confers resistance to ampicillin, and
NptII (also referred to as kanr or APHII), which
confers resistance to kanamycin. A bacterium in the gut of a human or animal (or maybe in the soil or munching on a plant) might happen to pick up a resistance gene from the DNA spilling out of the digested plant before the DNA is totally degraded. This seems even more plausible if the human or animal is also consuming the corresponding antibiotic at the same time, because selection pressure would be much higher for the bacteria to acquire the gene. There are several factors that suggest this risk may be very low:
Nonetheless, given a very large scale (GE plants all over the world,
trillions of bacteria in every animal's gut, many of them eating antibiotics
at the same time), the odds are in favor of a bacteria eventually picking
up a resistance gene from a plant. But would that contribute significantly
the already widespread antibiotic resistance? Probably not. But just to
be safe, the FDA has suggested developers use antibiotic resistance genes
for which resistance is already widespread (as resistance to ampicillin
and kanamycin is), and has encouraged the eventual phaseout of resistance
genes as markers (as other markers now exist). |
|
![]() |
|||