Unknown DNA in Monsanto's genetically engineered soya

15 August 2001: Recently published information by a team of Belgian scientists in the European Journal of Food Research Technology shows unknown DNA in genetically engineered (GE) Soya patented and sold by US multinational Monsanto (1).

This is the second time the team of researchers observed embarrassing inaccuracies in Monsanto's description of its best selling Genetically Modified Organism (GMO): "Roundup Ready" (RR) Soya (2).

"From a legal point of view, the only adequate reaction regulatory bodies could have is suspend the GMO approval and re-evaluate its environmental and health impact," said Lindsay Keenan of Greenpeace International.

Monsanto's Soya represents more than 50 percent of all GE crops in the world. GE Soya is only grown in the US, Argentina and Canada but it is sold all over the world and used in proceeded food products like chocolate, baby-food, bread, pizzas, ice-cream and as animal feed.

"To ask the company who did not inform the relevant authorities about this DNA in the first place to now confirm it is not significant is certainly not what you would call a sound scientific approach," commented Keenan, "and it is certainly not what consumers would call appropriate measures to protect their safety." In past years some "side effects" of RR Soya have been observed but never explained conclusively. These include phytoestrogen levels different from the levels of natural Soya, increased lignin content which made RR Soya plants brittle in hot temperatures, and reduced yields (3).

This is the first time a peer reviewed scientific journal publishes an independent scientific analysis of pivotal data submitted by a company for GMO approval. In most cases government authorities neither have the means nor the ambition to countercheck the accuracy of the GMO descriptions and rely entirely on the data submitted by the companies themselves.

"If Monsanto did not even get this most basic information right, what should we then think about the validity of all their safety tests and experiments, which are based upon these data?" asked Lindsay Keenan.

As the size of the newly revealed "unknown DNA" is large enough to generate unexpected changes in plant protein chemistry and because its origin and function appears to be unknown both to Monsanto and to the competent authorities, Greenpeace published its sequence on the web-site and invites the international scientific community to help identify its nature and possible consequences.

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For more information:

Press release

Background Information:

Roundup Ready Soya (PDF file): Incomplete data, missing evaluation and insufficient controls.

Monsanto's risk evaluation (PDF file): would not necessarily have detected unexpected effects caused by the unidentified DNA.

The European Journal of Food Research Technology

International appeal to scientists for help to identify the origin of this unknown DNA (PDF file)
The 534 bp region of unknown DNA

Notes

(1) Characterisation of the Roundup Ready soybean insert, Peter Windels, Isabel Taverniers, Ann Depicker, Eric Van Bockstaele, Marc De Loose, (2001) Characterisation of the Roundup Ready soybean insert. European Food Research and Technology, v.213, issue 2, pp. 107-112. Contact: Marc De Loose, Centre for Agricultural Research, Caritasstraat 21, B-9090 Melle, Belgium, m.deloose@clo.fgov.be Tel: +32 (0)9 272 2876

(2) The science paper reports of "…a DNA segment of 534 bp DNA for which no sequence homology could be detected" and the scientists conclude that "…during integration of the insert DNA rearrangements or a large deletion may have occurred". It cannot be ruled out that the unknown DNA is of foreign origin. The Belgian team had last year already discovered two formerly unknown DNA strains in Monsanto`s GE Soya thereby forcing Monsanto to eventually reveal this information to EU authorities in May 2000. These two inserts where identified as fragments of the initial insert and presumed to be insignificant and non-coding.

(3) Lappé, M.A., Bailey, E.B., Childress, C.C. & Setchell, K.D.R. (1998/1999), Alterations in Clinically Important Phytoestrogens in Genetically Modified, Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans. Journal of Medicinal Food, 1, 241-245. Coghlan, A. (1999) Splitting headache. Monsanto's modified Soya beans are cracking up in the heat. New Scientist, 20 Nov. 1999, p. 25. Benbrook, C. (2001) Troubled Times amid Commercial Success for Roundup Ready Soybeans.

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