Bees and Bt maize: Interactions with pathogens?
Bees are swarming around a pot containing yellow pollen feed. The newly emerged worker bees are obviously hungry. Over the next four weeks they will have to make do with pollen from just one maize variety. They are part of a feeding experiment being conducted at the University of Würzburg. A team at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology is conducting a series of laboratory experiments to investigate whether bees infected with intestinal parasites are less able to digest Bt maize pollen than healthy bees.
Research Live
Nematodes: An indicator of soil quality
Nematodes or roundworms are found almost everywhere in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in the sea. They are the most common of the multicellular animals and have the greatest number of species. Sebastian Höss is studying nematodes that live in agricultural soil. He is conducting research on behalf of the Institute for Biodiversity in Regensburg, on whether nematodes are sensitive to genetically modified Bt maize.more
Research Live
‘Escape test’ with earthworms
It is the end of October 2010. Most of the maize trial field has been harvested. Scientists from RWTH Aachen University are digging holes in the ground one last time to count earthworms. They are investigating whether genetically modified Bt maize has an impact on these beneficial soil-dwelling creatures. In the laboratory, an earthworm ‘escape test’ will show whether earthworms avoid soil containing Bt proteins.more
Research Live
Mirid bugs not keen on all types of maize
The stacks of Petri dishes appear at first to contain nothing but pieces of maize leaves. It is only on closer inspection that the tiny creatures living inside the plastic dishes become visible. They are mirids in all stages of development. Eva Schultheis of RWTH Aachen University is conducting a feeding experiment with insects from her own breeding programme. It is designed to show whether genetically modified Bt maize harms the bugs. The rice leaf bug was chosen as a model organism because it is common in the maize field and ingests a lot of the Bt protein produced by the Bt maize when it feeds on the maize leaves.more
Research Live
Maize without pollen: No more outcrossing?
On a field near Braunschweig, scientists from the Julius Kühn Institute are investigating whether their new concept to prevent the spread of genetically modified maize plants is working. The cultivation of cytoplasmic male-sterile maize is intended to make it possible to prevent cross-pollination with neighbouring maize fields. This is called biological containment or biocontainment. This year is the third and final year of the trial, after which the results will be known.more
Research Live
In search of a rare event
A trial field near Rostock: Conventional petunias with white flowers are pollinated with pollen from lilac-coloured petunias. These have been genetically modified, but the new genetic information is contained in the plastids rather than in the cell nucleus. Plastids are small units of a plant cell that have their own DNA. Since the genetic information in the plastids is passed on via pollen only in rare cases, it could be a means of restricting the spread of new genes. Scientists at the University of Rostock are now investigating under field conditions how frequently this rare event – outcrossing of plastid genes – occurs.more
Research Live
“After this year we will know whether cleistogamic oilseed rape is a suitable method for the biological containment of foreign genes.”
A flowering oilseed rape field near Braunschweig: While one half of the field glows bright yellow, the other half looks somewhat paler. This half is being used to grow cleistogamic oilseed rape, i.e. plants with flowers that do not open. The idea is to prevent the plants from releasing pollen into the environment. This trait could be used in future for the biological containment of foreign genes in genetically modified oilseed rape plants. This field trial is designed to show whether the method works in practice. more
Research Live
Maize litter and micro-organisms
It is the middle of April and there is stubble as far as the eye can see. There are still a few weeks left until the next crop of maize will be sown and the trial field lies abandoned. Scientists from Müncheberg have arrived to collect samples of the maize litter that was left on the field after the harvest last autumn. They are investigating whether the cultivation of Bt maize has an impact on soil-dwelling bacteria and fungi that break down maize litter. more
Research Live
Pollen diet for caterpillars
January 2010. It is below freezing outside, but in a greenhouse at RWTH Aachen University winter has been kept at bay and clouds of butterflies are fluttering about in a carefully controlled atmosphere in a large tent-like net. Mechthild Schuppener has succeeded in establishing a breeding programme for small tortoiseshell butterflies. She needs small caterpillars for feeding experiments that she is conducting in the laboratory. She is trying to find out whether genetically modified Bt maize is harmful to butterflies.more
Research Live
“We are looking at how bee colonies that can gather pollen from only one type of maize develop.”
The maize test area in the middle of August. Gauze-covered tents, distributed over the whole maize test area, represent the restricted habitat for the bees during the maize flowering season, each with two bee colonies. For the maize plants the space in the tents is rather cramped; their tops are bent under the three-meter high net. This flowering season is the crucial time for the bee trials of Stephan Härtel and his co-workers from the University of Bayreuth, since only then can the bees gather the maize pollen.more
Research Live
Will new plant substance lead to changes in potato characteristics?
It is a stormy, overcast afternoon in mid-July. Genetically modified potatoes which provide the raw material for a biodegradable plastic are growing in neat rows on a fenced-in release site belonging to the University of Rostock. Overwintering trials will be conducted on the potato tubers this winter and their rotting behaviour will be observed. more
Research Live
Binding sites and soil horizons
It is a cool, sunny July morning on the maize trial field. Scientists from the University of Göttingen are digging up a soil profile. The University of Göttingen’s Institute of Applied Biotechnology in the Tropics (IBT) is part of the maize research group. It is responsible for characterising the soil on the trial fields. Its scientists are also investigating in the laboratory how much Bt protein the soil can bind and whether the Bt protein can move to lower soil layers.more
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Bt maize: Impact on soil quality?
Interview with Prof. Christoph Tebbe, vTI Braunschweig (July 2010)
Barley: Biosafety research results
From 2005 to 2010 two genetically modified barley lines were tested on undesired side effects. GMO Safety spoke with Karl-Heinz Kogel from the University of Giessen.
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