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ADVERSE IMPACTS OF TRANSGENIC CROPS/FOODS :A COMPILATION OF SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES WITH ABSTRACTS37. Sun C, Wu Z, Zhang Y & Zhang L (2003) : Effect of transgenic Bt rice plantingon soil enzyme activities. Ying Yong Sgeng Tai Xue Bao 14: 2261-2264.A pot experiment was conducted with silty loam Agrodolf as test soil and withtransgenic Bt rice and non-Bt rice as test crops to study the effect of transgenicBt rice planting on soil urease, phophatase,arylsulfatase, invertase, anddehydrogenase activities. The results showed that Bt toxin could be introducedinto soil through root exudates of transgenic Bt rice, and its survival amount insoil varied with time. Compared with non-Bt rice treatment, transgenicBt rice treatment had a significant decrease (2.47%) of soil urease activity and asignificant increase (8.91%) of soil acid phosphataseactivity, but no significantchange in soil arylsulfatase, invertase, and dehydrogenase activities at the 15thday of emergence. At the 30th day of emergence, the transgenic Bt rice treatmentstill had a significant decrease of soil urease activity (16.36%) and a significantincrease of acid phosphataseactivity (35.69%), and no change in invertase activity.It also had significant increase in soilarylsulfatase (19.70%) and dehydrogenaseactivities (16.83%).http://europepmc.org/Abstract/MED/15031930/reload=0;jsessionid=HSzLydStrsWxwir5XMLX.438. Bruinsma M, Kowalchuk GA and van Veen JA (2003) : Effects of geneticallymodified plants on microbial communities and processes in soil. Biol.Fertil. Soils 37: 329-337The development and use of genetically modified plants (GMPs) has been atopic of considerable public debate in recent years. GMPs hold great promisefor improving agricultural output, but the potential for unwanted effects of GMPuse is still not fully understood. The majority of studies addressing potentialrisks of GMP cultivation have addressed only aboveground effects. However,recent methodological advances in soil microbial ecology have allowed researchfocus to move underground to try to gain knowledge of GMP-driven effects onthe microbial communities and processes in soil that are essential to keyterrestrial ecosystem functions. This review gives an overview of the researchperformed to date on this timely topic, highlighting a number of case studies.Although such research has advanced our understanding of this topic, a numberof knowledge gaps still prevent full interpretation of results, as highlighted bythe failure of most studies to assign a definitively negative, positive or neutraleffect to GMP introduction. Based upon our accumulating, yet incomplete,understanding of soil microbes and processes, we propose a synthesis for thecase-by-case study of GMP effects, incorporating assessment of the potentialplant/ecosystem interactions, accessible and relevant indicators, and tests forunforeseen effects.(174)