2000 NEWS DNA Surprise Monsanto discovers extra sequences in its Roundup Ready soybeans By Barry A. Palevitz The Monsanto Co., now a division of Pharmacia Corp., recently admitted that its Roundup Ready soybeans contain two extra bacterial DNA sequences derived from the original transformation event about 10 years ago. Plants manufacture essential aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine through the shikimic acid pathway, housed in their chloroplasts. A transit peptide lets the cytoplasmically made protein enter chloroplasts. USDA deemed the crop safe enough to deregulate it in 1996.
Canadian regulators feel the same.
The scientific community will also judge Monsanto's findings. It has value for the development of product-specific detection methods. Monsanto claims it discovered the extra inserts while developing sensitive line identification methods in preparation for product labeling. The company is using those methods on its other crops too. But the situation is complicated because the vector used for transformation contained two copies of the gene.