December 5, 2001 -- There is no evidence that the presence of transgenic traits in native Mexican corn poses a threat to biodiversity, says Luis Herrera Estrella, PhD, director of the Center For Research and Advanced
Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) at Irapuato, Mexico.

"For decades, maize landraces have lived together with commercial varieties, including
hybrids from multinational firms, and this fact has not caused their disappearance, and in most of the cases not even their replacement by
small growers," Dr. Herrera Estrella says. "During all of this time, our maize landraces and materials enhanced through conventional techniques have had the chance to exchange genes and, far from eliminating our domestic materials biodiversity, have rather enriched them."

University of California, Berkeley, scientists Dr. Ignacio H. Chapela and Dr. David Quist found genetic material from two strains of genetically modified corn used in the United States. Five of the
seven types of native corn, or criollo, from the remote region of Sierra Norte de Oaxaca in Mexico. Their discovery was reported in the November 29 issue of the journal Nature.

It should not come as a suprise that transgenic corn eventually cross-pollinated with the native corn, Dr. Herrera Estrella says. "On the other hand, since the farmlands closest
to the areas where 'contamination' was found are 100 kilometers away, one of the critical questions is about the source of the pollen that
'contaminated' the domestic varieties of such maize. In addition, the statements as to the negative consequences for biodiversity are
groundless speculations, since there are no experimental data in that
respect. It is very difficult to figure out that the presence of one
or two new genes in maize landraces might bring about their
extinction," he says.