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Abstract
Commercialization of genetically modified (GM) plants started about two decades
ago. In 2014 10% of the total global crop acreage was sown with GM plants. GM
maize is cultured in more than 30 countries, and is one of 4 species with the majority
of commercial GM plants both in terms of acreage and specific events. To support
farmers and consumers freedom of choice, coexistence systems need to be
implemented. MON810, expressing the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab toxin against
corn borers, is the only GM maize transformation event cultured in the EU and
predominantly in Spain. Numerous conventional and MON810 maize varieties coexist
in agricultural fields since 1998; and the proportion of GM fields has continuously
increased up to about 70-80% in some zones, particularly in Catalonia, where fields
are usually below 1 ha. Conventional agricultural fields in these zones support high
GM pressure and thus, they can represent the worst-case scenario in coexistence
studies. We monitored adventitious GM cross-pollination in twenty non-GM fields in
these regions during 5 cropping seasons. Analysis of the obtained data allowed
deducing a model to explain cross-pollination distribution in agricultural maize fields.