Fixing GM fears

One of many concerns over genetically modified foods has been fear that antibiotic-resistance genes, which are used as markers to indicate whether a given plant has been transformed with a recombinant gene, will be transferred into the wild. Speculative fears include the development of bacteria and humans that are resistant to antibiotics. But a new technique published in Nature Biotechnology could offer an alternative to the use of such antibiotic-resistance genes.

Researchers at the Rockefeller University (New York, N.Y.) and colleagues used a gene from Agrobacterium tumefaciens under control of an inducible promoter to select for transgenic plant cells. The gene codes for isopentenyltransferase (ipt), an enzyme involved in plant growth hormone biosynthesis, and induces shoot formation in cells that are transformed with DNA carrying the marker. ...