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BURES-SUR-YVETTE, FRANCE. French researchers investigating genetically
engineered rapeseed report that such plants may cause the premature death of
beneficial insects and impede pollinating insects such as bees from recognizing
flower smells. Genetically engineered plants designed to avert destructive
insects interfere with normal insect digestion by producing protease inhibitors
(proteins that interfere with enzyme activity). The end result is a severe and
lethal case of indigestion in any insects feeding on the plants. To study the
effects of protease inhibitors, researchers fed bees with sugar solutions for
three months. Bees fed a solution containing up to 100 times the concentration
of protease inhibitors found in engineered rapeseed lost their ability to
differentiate the smells of different flowers and died 15 days earlier than did
bees fed on normal sugar solutions. Says Minh-H… Phan-Delegue of the Laboratory
of Comparative Invertebrate Neurobiology in France, "rapeseed is particularly
important to bees since it is the first plant to bloom in the spring."
Researchers are currently conducting a three-year study to conclusively
determine the effects of genetically engineered plants on pollinating
insects. |
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