转基因与生物安全

Transgenic Organisms and Biosafety

文章以转基因作物为例讨论了转基因的生物安全。转基因作物在带来经济利益的同时,其对环境和健康的安全性也成为研究的焦点。从目前转基因生物安全主要争论的内容出发,包括转基因逃逸及其生态学后果、对非靶标生物影响、害虫的抗性进化等方面,结合相关的案例综合介绍了近年来的主要进展和存在的问题。对那些科技界争论较多,引起强烈社会反响事件的起因和主要结论进行了客观的评述,以期为进一步的科学研究提供依据。根据中国的实际情况,考虑到生物安全的要求,为保护生物多样性的可持续利用,提出相关的建议和对策:(1)以生物安全相关的科学问题为主,具体的目标生物为辅,开展系统的实验研究;(2)加强生物安全的监测与监管,鉴别重要生态功能区和生态脆弱区,适当设立转基因保护区,禁止种植转基因作物;(3)重视公众知情权,不仅宣传转基因生物带来的惠益,也应告知其风险及管控措施,促进公众的理解和认可。

Biosafety issues of transgenic organisms were discussed in this review using transgenic crops as examples. The global commercialization of transgenie crops has produced benefits but also accompanies potential risks. The four most popular transgenic crops that commercially planted in the past years are soybean （ Glycine max ） , cotton （ Gossypium hirsutum ） , corn （ Zea mays ） , and canola （ Brassica napus ） . The current modified traits that have the largest area at worldwide scale are herbicide resistant, insect resistant, and their stacked traits of both resistance. All those traits may confer advantage in the field. At the early stage of transgenic technology application, its risks had been raised as issues for discussion by both scientists and general public, which is the critical component under consideration for associated research With the development and application of this technology, its risks to human health and environmental safety have been hot topics for debating Some risk concerns had become hazards in real, such as the outbreak of secondary insect pests, the resistance evolution of some targeted insect pests and some non-targeted weeds, and the effects on non-targeted organisms etc. Among them, the effects on non-target organism have been the most complicate issue in debate. Those issues and related events that had caused extensive debate and profound social impacts were reviewed in this article to set up important base for further discussion. The cause behind the debate was analyzed and the final conclusive result of debated issues was then provided. It has been a common phenomenon that there are always contradictivc opinions on the same revealed effects of transgenic crops between advocators or developer of the transgenic technology and opponents or environmentalists. For example when the evidence of contamination of Mexico maize landraces was firstly published, the publication had received many criticisms and had even been retracted by the journal. Finally, nobody would question again on the contamination fact when more evidences came out years later. Conversely, it was reported that the maize pollens expression Bt （ Bacillus thuringiensis ） insecticidal protein could kill the larvae of monarchy butterfly （ Danaus plexippus ） . But further studies had revealed that the concentration of the Bt in the pollens and pollen density on the leaves ofAsclepias curassavica were not able to kill the larvae except transgenic events that expressing higher concentration of Bt protein in pollens Nonetheless, butterfly is belonged to the order of Lepidoptera that is susceptible to the popular Bt protein used in currently commercialized crops and sublethal and long term impact should not be neglected. Anyway, safety is always the first priority in the application of transgenic technology. To ensure the sustainable use of biodiversity and biosafety of environment, strategies were proposed in this review to provide references for further investigation： （ 1 ） Biosafety studies and risk assessments shall be based on scientific questions other than targeted transgenic organisms and the latter can be only relevant when complementary to the issue questioned. （ 2 ） Enforcing the general surveillance and monitoring regarding of the potential risks of transgenic crops, protected locations such as important ecological functional areas and vulnerable ecological regions shall be identified to be prohibited from planting of transgenic crops. （ 3 ） To enhance the public awareness by providing not only the benefits of the transgenic technology, but also the risks and related management strategies to the public. Only in this way, the understanding and acceptance of this technology can be achieved and the biosafety and development will be promoted. In addition, promotion of conventional breeding and possibility to import products from regions with low adoption of transgenic technology or opportunity to encourage the plantation of non-transgenic crops in exporting countries also been briefly suggested.