Panacea-Or Pandora's Box?

摘要

Insects, wine, and genetical-ly modified organisms are converging in a research laboratory in California. The result could soon test the limits of the nation's regulatory framework for food, drugs, and environmental safety. While Washington is up in arms about human cloning and stem-cell manipulation-technologies that exist mostly in theory-it pays virtually no attention to the more immediate matter of genetically engineered insects and microbes already being created. These designer critters could be an enormous boon for public health and crop production-but could also pose great environmental risks. One of the most advanced projects involves the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a native of the Southeast U.S. that first turned up in California vineyards in 1990. It has already destroyed some $14 billion worth of grapes and other crops in the state by passing on a disease that prevents plants from absorbing water. A team of scientists, led by entomology professor Tom Miller at the University of California at Riverside, hopes to outgun this pest with a genetically modified microbe that could be ready to test in vineyards this summer.