Herself’s Recipes

When genetically modified cells are injected into a plant it is difficult to say whether or not they have taken. So genetic engineers early on used antibiotic resistant genes as markers. These genes give antibiotic resistance to kanamycin and neomycin, another is resistant to ampicillin. These markers would be attached to the genes being inserted and used as a way to check to see if the insertion was successful. These markers should have no effect on the plant. These genes can be found in most genetically engineered food today.

Antibiotic resistant markers are turned off when added to the plant however, Genes that are transfered to plants might be turned off and on in the plant and the plant’s future generations.

It is possible that eating these foods could reduce antibiotic effectiveness in people. DNA is not fragmented in the intestine as had been previously thought. It can be excreted or passed into the blood of the person eating the food. The rise of antibiotic resistance coincides with the rise of this genetic marker being released into the food supply. But these tests were done in a lab, not a human and what happens in the labs does not always work the same way in the real world.

In Europe the use of npt11 in commercial products is being phased out. I could not find information on US phase out of these markers.