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honey honey



October 10, 2002
Prof. Joe Cummins
e-mail: jcummins@uwo.ca

“Honey Bees  and the toxicity of genetically modified crops”
Genetically modified (GM) crops incoeporate novel changes in the genetics of crops. Bees have an essential but subtle relationship to the crops and to the environment. It is essential that GM crops should not damage the bees and if commercial GM crops are found to injure bees that those crops be removed from production. Gm crops can effect bees directl or indirectly through effecting flowering and pollen production. A good deal of effort has been directed to evaluating the impact of GM crops , particularly those crops genetically engineered to contain insect toxins or toxins of fungi which have components such as chitin which are common to fungi and arthropods. The results of such studies have uncovered important threats to bees but the evidence of injury to bees did not seem to influence the release of crops capable of injuring bees for commercial production. Studies the impact of GM crops on bees included both behavior and toxicity studies of the GM crops and studies of the purified toxins produced in GM crops. A number of excellent reviews of studies of the impact of GM crops or their toxins have been published(1,2,3). The effect of insect toxins called protease inhibitors has been studied in bee larvae (4) and the effect of a protease inhibitor (trypsin inhibitor) on bee flight and longevity (5). The results of the studies show that GM crops modified with bacillus thuringiensis toxins have little or no effect on bees, as does the enzyme chitinase while protease inhibitors consistently have detrimental impacts and the glucanase enzyme modification to resist fungi also was found to effect bees detrimentally. The Bacillus thuringiensis toxin gene modifications are designated Cry but there are numerous alleles and thses have distinct characteristics. Cry 1 alleles were studied extesively along with Cry 9C and Cry 3B but Cry II and CryV alleles have not yet been reported but probably should. Here-to-fore the Cry genes have not proven detrimental to bees. In contrast the protease inhibitors proved to be detrimental to the longevity and behavior of bees. Chitinase (protection from insects and fungi) did not prove detrimental to bees while glucanase (protection from fungi) effected conditioned responses in bees. Of the GM toxins genes in crops released for commercial production in the United States only the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry genes and the protease inhibitors seen widespread release. The GM crops with protease inhibitors released for commercial production included potato, canola (rapeseed) and creeping bentgrass (6). The sound and logical approach would be to totally ban commercial production of GM crops modified with protease inhibitor genes to protect bees and to prevent long term damage to the entire environment. Those crops released for commercial production containing the protease inhibitor gene should be withdrawn. The impact of all GM releases on bees should be carefull studied prior to release and crops injuring bees should not be released for production.
References
1. Malone,L and Pham-Delegue,M “Effect of transgene products on honey bees and bumblebees” 2001 Apidologie 32,287-304 2. Malone,L,Burgess,E,Philip,B,Tregida,E and Todd,J “Do GM crops and their products have side effects on bees and bumblebees?” 2001 Apimondia ISBN:0-620-27768-8 Proc 37th Int Apic,28Oct-1Nov 2001 Durban,South Africa 3. Picard-Nizou,A,Grison,R,Olsen,L,Pioche,C,Arnold,G and Pham-Delegue,M “Impact of proteins used in plant genetic engineering: toxicity and behavioral study in the honeybee”1997 J Econ Entomology 90,1710-16 4. Brodsgaard,H,Brodsgaard,C,Hansen,H and Lovei,G “Environmental risk assessement of transgenic plants using honey bee larvae” 2001 Apimondia ISBN:0-620-27768-8 Proc 37th Int Apic,28Oct-1Nov 2001 Durban,South Africa 5. Malone,E,Burgess,E, Gatehouse,H,Voisy,C,Tregida,E and Philip,B “Effect of ingestion of a Bacillus thuringiernsis toxin and a trypsin inhibitor on honey bee flight activity and longevity” 2001 Apidologie 32,57-68 6. Crops No Longer Regulated By USDA http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/cfdocs/biopetitions1.cfm

	

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