The April 4 online announcement, then publication in print April 11, was the latest in a series of skirmishes that started before the Nov. 29 issue appeared. Using PCR to detect a DNA signature diagnostic of genetic engineering, Quist and Chapela claimed that biotech transgenes had invaded so-called land races of maize planted by local farmers in Mexico, probably via cross pollination.2 The researchers said the promiscuous sequences probably entered the maize genome many times and even fragmented—claims that set off alarm bells in plant molecular biology laboratories.
It didn't take long before the molecular biology community responded officially. By mid-December, Nature received at least two letters to the editor in rebuttal; one from a collaboration between groups in UC-Berkeley's department of plant and microbial biology and the Plant Gene Expression Center in nearby Albany, Calif., and another joint response from British Columbia and the University of Georgia in Athens. ...
