C O R R E S P O N D E N C E

To the editor:As concerned plant scientists at majorplant science research institutions in Japan,we would like to express our collectiveconcern over the impact of Japanese publicresistance to plant genetic engineering onthe actions of local and nationalgovernment. We are concerned thatnegative public sentiment could translateinto government actions that willcompromise overall competitiveness andresearch and development capability in theplant sciences.

For example, at the prefecture level, thelocal government in Hokkaido (a majorregion of agriculture) is currentlyformulating a bill scheduled for 2005 to banplanting genetically modified (GM) cropsapproved by the national Japaneseauthorities. The Tokyo metropolitangovernment and local farmers have alreadystopped the field assessment of a transgenicpotato line at an experimental field inTanashi city, Tokyo, apparently solely on thebasis of negative public perception. Theseactions appear to have been prompted by

unsubstantiated fears that such plantingmight affect the local agriculture economy1.We fear that they bring Japanese plantscience closer to a critical situation in whichresearch not only in the field but also in thelaboratory will be threatened. At thenational level, negative public sentimentmay also affect funding allocation by theJapanese government in the plant sciencesas a whole.

We urge Japanese political leaders not toabandon a technology that is readily beingadopted by countries outside of Europeand could positively contribute toeconomic growth in Japan. Politicians havea responsibility to respect and honor theconcerns of their electorate, but alsoshould respect scientific consensus thatgenetic engineering is as safe as any othertechnology.

1. http://www.biotech-house.jp/news/news_84.html/

Kazuo N. Watanabe & Tatsuhito Fujimura

Graduate School of Life and EnvironmentalSciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

Negative fallout from public sentiment in Japan

NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY VOLUME 22 NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2004 943

To the editor:I read with interest the News in Brief‘BRCA2 patent awarded’ byPeter Mitchell from theApril issue (Nat.Biotechnol. 22, 373, 2004).Mitchell states that theEuropean patent grantedto Cancer Research UK(CRUK) on 11 February2004 “effectively breaks themonopoly of MyriadGenetics...which has held alimited European patentsince May 2001 on the useof BRCA2 for diagnosisand genetic screening.”Mitchell points out that Myriad Genetics

Ko Shimamoto, Takashi Hashimoto & Nozomi Koizumi

Nara Institute of Advanced Science andTechnology, 8916-5, Takayama-cho, Ikoma,Nara, 630-0192, Japan

Hiroo Fukuda

Graduate School of Science, University ofTokyo, 7-3-1 Hongou, Bynkyo-ku, Tokyo,113-0033, Japan

Satoshi Naito

Graduate School of Agriculture, HokkaidoUniversity, Kita 9 Jou, Nishi 9 Choume,Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan

Kenzo Nakamura

Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences,Nagoya University, Furou-cho, Chigusa-ku,Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan

Tetsuro Mimura

Department of Biology, Faculty of Science,Kobe University, Rokkodai 1-1, Nada-ku, Kobe,657-8501 Japan

Yuko Ohhashi

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences,2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8602,Japan

Kenichirou Shimazaki

Graduate School of Sciences, Kyusyu University,6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka,Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

Ichirou Terashima

Graduate School of Science, Osaka University,Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

Hirofumi Uchimiya

Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology,University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongou, Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

Tomoyuki Yamaya

Graduate School of Agriculture, TohokuUniversity, Aramaki-azaaoba, Aoba-ku,Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8578, Japane-mail(K.N.W.): nabechan@gene.tsukuba.ac.jp

(Salt Lake City, UT, USA) would need alicense from CRUK “before marketing

BRCA2 testing in Europe”and then goes on to statethat, assuming the CRUKpatent is not overturned,“other laboratories can doBRCA2 testing withouthaving to send all samplesback to the Myriad’sheadquarters in Utah.”

Mitchell seems to besaying that other labora-tories are now in aposition to performBRCA2 testing withoutregard to Myriad

Genetics’ patent. In my view, which is

Patent clarification

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