Effect of physically contained greenhouse covered by fine mesh on pollen dispersal in maize

The risk from genetically modified (GM) plants results from the possibility of gene contamination producing adverse effects on biological diversity by introducing herbicide or insect resistance into related plants or weeds (NAS 2002). The concern about the leakage of genes from GM plants into the environment has primarily focused on pollen that could be wind-borne for long distances. During the period of fisk assessment in Japan, physical containment is applied as a measure of reducing gene flow via the dispersal of pollen from GM plants into the surrounding environment In this study, we tried to estimate the effect of physically contained greenhouse covered by 1-mm fine mesh to reduce pollen dispersal by researching cross pollination rate between non-GM yellow maize in a greenhouse and silver maize outside the greenhouse.