 n
this interview, Special Topics talks with Professor M.J.
Crawley about his highly cited work in the field of
genetically modified crops. Professor Crawley’s most-cited
paper, "Ecology of transgenic oilseed rape in natural
habitats," (Nature 363[6430]: 620-3, 17 June
1993), is ranked at #2 on our list of the 25 most-cited papers
in this field over the past decade. Professor Crawley’s work
can be found in the field of Environment/Ecology in the ISI
Essential
Science Indicators
Web product. Professor Crawley is presently Professor of Plant
Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the
United Kingdom.
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 What
factors or circumstances led you to your work?
Frustration with the notion that genetic modification (GM) would
inherently alter the population ecology of plants .
What
are your immediate and long-term research goals?
To test whether the ecology of GM plants is altered in comparison
with their conventional counterparts. More specifically, does GM
alter the likelihood that plants will become more invasive or more
weedy? The issues involve unforeseen trade-offs (e.g. herbicide
tolerance increasing competitive ability in the absence of the
herbicide) and effects of natural enemies (e.g. would plants
expressing insect resistance perform better in competition with
susceptible genotypes; it is not obvious that they would do so,
because other factors—like competition from other plants—might
be more important) .
What
are the social implications of your work, if any?
If it were to be shown that GM did make plants more invasive of
natural habitats or more weedy in agriculture, then this would argue
strongly against the commercialization of these particular GM
constructs.
What
tools or technological advances have been important in your research,
if any?
The experimental designs were the most novel feature,
simultaneously manipulating competition and natural enemy densities
for both the GM and conventional plants in well-replicated studies
in a wide range of different plant communities (12 of them, spread
throughout Britain).
Did
you expect your work to become highly cited, or is this surprising to
you?
This was the first field study on GM release in natural habitats,
so it would be expected to have a wide readership.
How
rapidly has the state of our knowledge about your field evolved in the
past decade, and what were the key discoveries that furthered the
advancement of the field?
Hardly at all. The crops and the GM constructs have not really
changed in the last 10 years. This, of course, is highly surprising
given the initial enthusiasm for the technology.
What
is your prediction for the state of our knowledge about your field 10
years from now?
No advances. The necessary risk experiments are simply too
expensive to carry out properly. Just look at the famous Farm Scale
Evaluation of GM crop technology on farmland biodiversity now in
their third (hopefully last) year in the UK. Who would pay to test,
say, a GM forest tree for invasive potential in native forests?
Professor M.J. Crawley, FRS
Department of Biological Sciences
Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine at Silwood Park
Berkshire, United Kingdom
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ESI Special Topics,
July 2002
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/gmc/interviews/MJCrawley.html
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