مقايسه تغييرات ناخواسته در محصولات تراريخته و محصولات توليد شده به روش هاي اصلاح نباتات

A comparison of the occurrence of unintended effects between genetically modified crop plants and varieties developed using traditional methods plant breeding

Global area under the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crop plants exceeded 125 million hectares at the end of the year 2008. In spite of the lack of any scientific report on the toxicity and allergenicity of GM crops, the possibility of occurrence of unintended ettects are being raised by the opponents of this technology. Unintended effects are not restricted to the genetic engineering technology and are documented phenomenon for all plant improvement technologies. There are however differences in the scale and the possibility of the occurrence of unintended effects among different methods. Recent findings with microarray technology indicated that plants improved through radiation mutation show higher levels of unintended effects and disturbances. Differences of the unintended effects among different plant breeding methods are reviewed in this paper.