Cultivation-independent establishment of genetically engineered plants in natural populations: current evidence and implications for EU regulation

Bauer-Panskus, Andreas; Breckling, Broder; Hamberger, Sylvia; Then, Christoph

doi:10.1186/2190-4715-25-34

Environmental Sciences Europe

Table 1 Overview of case studies of uncontrolled spread of genetically engineered plants (n.i. = not investigated)

From: Cultivation-independent establishment of genetically engineered plants in natural populations: current evidence and implications for EU regulation

Plant species	Country	Commercial cultivation	Cases in field sites	Cases beyond field sites	State of research	Likelihood of persistence and invasiveness in the regions concerned	References
Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera)	USA	No	n.i.	Yes	Confirmed by several publications	Very likely to persist and invade because bentgrass shows invasive potential	[5–9]
Black poplar (Populus nigra)	China	Yes	Yes	n.i.	Conclusive studies still missing	Only very few investigations about potential gene flow into wild poplar	[50, 51], overview in [52]
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)	Mexico	Yes	n.i.	Yes	Pilot study	Very likely to persist because of gene flow into wild relatives	[16]
Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Mexico	No	Yes	n.i.	Confirmed by several publications	Persistence very likely because of informal seed exchange and the gene flow between fields	[3, 4, 38–41]
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus)	Australia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Conclusive studies still missing	No conclusive publications	[43, 44]
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus)	Canada	Yes	Yes	Yes	Confirmed by several publications	Persistence and further spread very likely because of confirmed gene flow to related species	[23–26, 30–32]
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus)	Europe	No	n.i.	Yes	Relevant studies are mostly missing	No information about crosses into wild relatives yet	[45–47]
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus)	Japan	No	No	Yes	Confirmed in several publications	Gene flow into related species likely to have occurred	[27–29, 34–36]
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus)	USA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Pilot study	No information about crosses into wild relatives. Unnoticed gene flow with wild species is likely.	[42]
Papaya (Carica papaya)	Thailand	No	Yes	n.i.	Conclusive studies still missing	Gene flow into de-domesticated papaya could cause persistence	[53]
Rice (Oryza sativa)	China	No	Yes	n.i.	Conclusive studies still missing	Persistence is likely due to informal seed exchange and gene flow with weedy rice	[48, 49]

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