Does it matter if genes can jump from GM food to bugs in human gut?

摘要

Last week opponents of genetic engineering seized on a report suggesting that DNA from GM food can enter bacteria in the human gut. Here at last was proof, they claimed, that antibiotic-resistant superbugs could emerge by picking up the marker genes found in some GM crops. So should we be worried? "We've said time and time again there's a risk of this happening. Now they've looked just once and they've found it," says Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth. But most microbiologists, including the researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne who did the study, dismiss such concerns.