[gone35]

In regards to your "response" to the risk of transgene flow, frankly I don't even know where to begin...

First, what you cite is not a comment from APHIS, but a verbatim quote from an earlier post from your company blog [1]; which is supposed to be a draft outline of proposed biosafety tests, but which largely consists of paraphrases and language from two already completed APHIS plant pest risk assessments for a completely unrelated rose variety using plasmid transgenes, some of whose conclusions and comments you then use to (wrongly) extrapolate about your product and its risks. This is highly misleading, to say the least.

Second, your statements about transgene flow risk are outdated and mischaracterize current knowledge. Suffice to say, your technical team (or even any of the experts you engage with, say, in SYNBIO 7) is more than capable of briefing you on the current re-assessment and state of the art.

Best of luck with your project, but do keep in mind ethical obligations to your stakeholders override any other imperatives or agendas you might have.

[1] http://blog.glowingplant.com/post/57840496382/tests-we-plan-...