January 18, 2002 -- The El Batan, Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center ( also known as Centro Internacional de
Mejoramiento de Maiz y
Trigo or CIMMYT) has completed screening an additional 15 Mexican maize landraces from its maize gene bank and
determined that none of them carried the common promoter (cauliflower mosaic virus 35S, abbreviated as CaMv 35S)
associated with the presence of a transgene in corn.

In mid-October, 2001, a screening of 28 landraces from the gene bank also failed to indicate the presence of the promoter. In
addition, CIMMYT tested seeds from 42 Oaxacan landraces that were collected in 2000 for a study on gene flow. Again it was
determined that the CaMV 35S was not present in any of the samples. If the promoter had been found (and those results
verified), it would indicate that a transgenic maize plant had crossed with a maize landrace, or conventional variety, at some
point in the landrace's ancestry.

The screening work at CIMMYT was initiated in response to published reports that transgenic corn had been found growing
in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Puebla (September 27 [Vol. 413] and November 29 [Vol. 414], 2001 issues of
Nature). To date, all screenings of Mexican maize landraces and varieties at CIMMYT have failed to show the presence
of either the promoter or a transgene.