Professor Fiona Doohan:

I will take the example of breast cancer. BRCA genes for breast cancer were discovered and there is a molecular marker test for those genes which tells whether a person has enhanced susceptibility to breast cancer. It is a molecular marker test. It is the same. I might find that variety one has disease resistance because of a particular gene and I have a molecular marker test to detect that gene. It is not GM; it is testing for the presence of that gene. It is a simple way of saying if a particular non-GM gene is naturally present, the crop is more likely to be resistant to disease or will be more resistant to disease than for a variety for which there is a negative result. It is analogous to breast cancer. If somebody is positive for the gene, that person is more likely to get breast cancer than somebody who is negative. The converse situation is a crop variety that has a particular gene is more likely to be disease resistant than one that does not have it. The two are completely distinct. It is biotechnology which is much bigger than GM technology. People forget that but it is very distinct and is absolutely not GM technology.