Assessing ecological aspects of biosafety of genetically modified crops to environment

Abstract

Biotechnology alongside the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops is constantly providing new opportunities for increasing crop productivity and tackling problems in agriculture, such as diseases, pests and weeds, abiotic stress and nutritional limitations of stopple food crops. Crops possessing new traits enabling the use in pharmaceutical production are also being generated. As GM crops are being introduced into various locations with different ecosystems, agriculture, biodiversity and agriculture practice, a scientifically based understanding of the environmental effects of GM crops cultivation would assist decision markers worldwide in ensuring environmental safety and sustainability. The main important environmental assessment of GM crops deals with their putative invasiveness, vertical and/or horizontal gene flow, effects on biodiversity and the impact on other products. These investigations are all highly interdisciplinary and complex. This paper deals with some of the most important problems related to entering GM crops into the environment, such as plant protection, ecological effects of HRCs, gene flow, biodiversity, stress, ecological risks of Bt crops, effects on soil ecosystems etc. There is a clear need to further assess the severity, magnitude and scope of risks associated with the massive field deployment of transgenic crops. When assessing GMC inter-relation with the existing cultivars, an increased knowledge base underpinning the development of GMC will provide greater confidence in plant science while assessing the risks and benefits of releasing such crops.

Biotehnologija uz uvođenje genetski modifikovanih (GM) biljaka konstantno stvara nove mogućnosti povećanja biljne proizvodnje i rešavanja problema u poljoprivredi, kao što su bolesti, štetočine, korovi, abiotički stres i nutritivna ograničenja. Stvaraju se i biljke koje poseduju nove osobine, koje omogućavaju njihovo korištenje u farmaceutskoj proizvodnji. Budući da se GM biljke uvode na različite lokacije okarakterisane raznovrsnim ekosistemima, tipovima poljoprivrede, biodiverzitetom i agrikulturalnom praksom, neophodno je naucno razumevanje efekata uzgoja GM biljaka na životnu sredinu, koje ce obezbediti bezbednost i održivost životne sredine. Najvažnija istraživanja su ona usmerena na invazivnost GM biljaka, vertikalni i horizontalni prenos gena, uticaj na biološku raznovrsnost i na druge proizvode. Ova ispitivanja su veoma složena i multidisciplinarna. Ovaj rad razmatra neke od najvažnijih problema vezanih za uvođenje GM biljaka u životnu sredinu, kao što su zaštita biljaka, ekološki efekti horizontalnog prenosa gena, biodiverzitet, stres, efekti na zemljište itd. Postoji jasna potreba da se dublje istraži veličina i opseg rizika povezanih sa masivnom upotrebom transgenih biljaka. Pri procenjivanju međuodnosa GM biljaka I postojećih sorti, detaljnije poznavanje razvoja GM biljaka će omogućiti jasnije, pouzdanije i preciznije usmerene aktivnosti u biljnim naukama.