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Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)GMO Safety : Genetic engeneering - Environment - Plants

Biosafety research into oilseed rape

Oilseed rape: hardy, mobile and sociable

Oilseed rape interacts intensively with its surroundings. This has a lot to do with its biology and origin, and little to do with genetic engineering. But because of its peculiarities it provides plenty of material for biosafety research.


Oilseed rape also grows outside cultivated fields, e.g. on verges (above) or as volunteer rape (below).


Germinating rape seeds

Compared with many other crop plants, oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) has some special characteristics.

  • Oilseed rape has a few traits from wild plants and is therefore capable of becoming established on non-agricultural land. Flowering rape plants are clearly visible along verges, railway tracks and in the central reservations of motorways.

  • Rape seeds can survive for years in the soil. After a crop rotation oilseed rape often appears as volunteer rape in subsequent years. In addition, the seed pods are not very robust and many seeds fall to the ground during harvesting.

  • In Central Europe there are lots of wild and cultivated plants that are closely related to rape, with which it can cross.

  • Oilseed rape outcrosses a lot. Its pollen can be carried to other oilseed rape fields and related wild plants.

  • Although oilseed rape is self-fertilising, cross-fertilisation also plays a significant role. Cross-fertilisation is estimated to account for 30% of rape fertilisation.

Between a field of oilseed rape and the surrounding ecosystem there are only minimal biological restraints: the fact that plants, seeds, pollen (and therefore genes) are transferred is due to the biology of rape and its origins in the large mustard family (Brassicaceae) native to Central Europe.

If genetically modified rape plants are tested or even cultivated in the field, the new genes (usually herbicide‑resistance genes) will also be subject to the biological processes of going wild and outcrossing. The question is: Are these genes and the traits they confer different from the other oilseed rape genes that are passed on in the pollen and seeds? Could these genes in particular interfere in the ecosystem in such a way as to cause damage?

 

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February 27, 2006 [jump to top]