As Reported in the News - The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology
Gannett News Service

Scientists are working to rewrite two lines of poetry many Americans learned as children: "Poems are made by fools like me. But only God can make a tree."

Using techniques similar to those that created genetically modified crops, researchers in the United States and abroad believe they are closer to using technology to develop desirable traits in trees faster and more consistently than conventional breeding practices, reports the Gannett News Service.

Commercial timber companies hope genetic modification can produce trees that grow faster, resist insects and disease and require less land to grow on.

Genetic modification also holds the promise of reviving and strengthening tree species that have been devastated by pests and disease such as the American chestnut.

For the average person, genetic engineering might mean backyard fruit trees that produce consistently with less work.

The lines by poet Joyce Kilmer reflect the objections some have about the whole idea.

Researchers and government regulators also worry about creating a menace, such as a disease-resistant tree that grows like a weed, crowding out other trees.

For that reason, the federal government requires researchers using test fields to grow transgenic trees, as the modified trees are called, to destroy the trees before they are mature enough to release pollen that could fertilize their wild cousins.

Regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are taking a go-slow approach as they write the rules that will determine how experimental gene-altered trees move from the laboratory to commercial markets, according to the Gannett News Service.

"We have to make sure it's not going to be a plant pest," said Meghan Thomas, a spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Even the seemingly laudable goal of bringing back trees that are endangered could have unforeseen consequences. For example, what plants and animals might be harmed if a tree like the American chestnut, which has been absent from Eastern forests for 100 years, makes a genetically assisted comeback?

Engineered trees made sterile to avoid possible cross-pollination with wild trees wouldn't make seeds, and that would mean less food for wildlife, said Kate Heaton, senior forestry specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco.

Heaton said the consensus among environmental groups is that the government should move with caution.

"There are so many unknowns," she said.

Mankind has long butted into the natural process to try to encourage certain characteristics in plants and animals.

To try to achieve a fungus-resistant tree by conventional methods, male and female trees that appear to be particularly resistant to disease are mated and the seeds harvested. But growers have no guarantee the offspring will be as resistant as the parent trees.

Genetic engineering makes the process more efficient, uniform and predictable, researchers said.

Richard Meilan, a Purdue University tree researcher, is enthusiastic about the possibilities of transgenic trees, reports the Gannett News Service.

If manipulating genetic traits can control pollen, then allergy sufferers might get relief. Developing commercial trees with reliable and uniform characteristics could mean less pressure to log old-growth forests.

"There are some risks, but I think they are minor and can be ameliorated," said Meilan, a molecular physiologist.

Estimates on when the first commercial genetically modified tree could hit the U.S. market vary. Some say it could be as soon as five years; others say a decade or two.

Bill Libby, a retired forestry professor at the University of California, sees a future for transgenic trees but not anytime soon.

"People have a very special feeling about trees and about forest ecosystems," he said. "I would put it in the ethical, mystical, religious context."

Also, there may not be much of a demand for alternatives to traditional crossbreeding until the world starts feeling the effects of population growth and loss of forestlands, he said in the Gannett News Service report.

As Reported in the News is a weekday feature that summarizes one of the most interesting stories of the day, as reported by media from around the world, and selected by Initiative staff from a scan of the news wires. The Initiative is not a news organization and does not have reporters on its staff: Posting of these stories should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a particular viewpoint, but merely as a summary of news reported by legitimate news-gathering organizations or from press releases sent out by other organizations.