2005 Volume 22 Issue 5 Pages 497-504
To establish a guideline for assessing the environmental effects of genetically modified (GM) crops, flows of genes from GM crops to their wild relatives should be understood. We investigated the gene flow between cultivated and wild varieties of carrot, Daucus carota, as a model plant system despite of the fact that no GM carrot is currently cultivated in Japan. Carrot is one of most widely cultivated vegetables and shows high genetic diversity because of its cross- and insect-mediated-pollination characteristics. Since wild carrot grows in many countries including Japan, gene flow in carrot would be one of the worst cases of dispersing unnecessary modified genes to the wild. In this study, we investigated the population density of wild carrot in Hokkaido, Japan, and the behaviors of its pollinators. There, wild carrot grows in wasteland and along roads near the coast where cultivated carrot cannot grow. We made hybrids between wild and cultivated carrots, observed their growth, and found that the hybrid could vigorously grow at the site. We also found gene markers that can distinguish wild carrot from its cultivated relative although the wild carrot population was more genetically diverse than the cultivated one. These makers will enable gene introgression from cultivated carrot to its wild relatives to be detected. This study will be a reference for assessing gene flows in GM crops.
