Ken McClure: Deception

While he was thinking about this it occurred to him that this was something he could actually do for himself with the aid of his laptop. Using a modem link to the Sci-Med computer, he would type in the rogue foreign sequence and ask it to scan various DNA databases, looking for similarity. It would take a little time to key in what amounted to a meaningless string of letters and it would have to be done carefully — a bit like copy typing text in a language you didn’t understand — but it was worth a try. It might well be that the MAFF lab had already tried this and failed to detect any similarity to any known gene but the fact remained that they hadn’t reported doing that and even if it had been an unknown sequence, that alone would still have been worth reporting.

Steven keyed in the sequence of letters and painstakingly checked his work by reading the letters backwards, four at a time, using a postcard to cover up the others as he moved back along the screen. When he felt satisfied that his entry was accurate, he made the link with the Sci-Med computer and requested a database comparison. It didn’t take long. The sequence was recognised almost immediately: it was present in the first database that the computer scanned. The sequence, it reported, was that of a DNA insertion element known in the trade as a transposon.

‘Of course,’ muttered Steven as it suddenly became clear to him why it was there. He now understood the biotech company’s argument. This third element wasn’t really a foreign gene at all. It was simply an easily detectable marker that had been used by their scientists as a convenient label in their experiments. Although foreign to the oil seed rape plant, this supposed third unlicensed ‘gene’ had simply been inserted to enable the Agrigene scientists to detect the presence of the two real foreign genes.

In the laboratory, it was impractical to demonstrate the presence of foreign genes by painstakingly sequencing the entire DNA blueprint of the plant so it was usual for experimenters to tag their genes with something that would be much easier to detect — usually with some kind of chemical marker. If this tag was present there was every chance that the foreign genes were too.

So why all the fuss? Steven wondered. The ministry lab must have known this when they made their report. It was common practice for scientists to use this technology. Why hadn’t the reporting lab pointed this out to the protestors and their legal representatives? Or could this be a case of lawyers deliberately exploiting a misunderstanding for their own ends? Even so, he found it hard to believe that no one in the MAFF lab had pointed out that the tag could not reasonably be considered as a third foreign gene.

Once again he was forced to wonder why the original sequence had not been produced by both parties for comparison. The marker gene must have been present in the original sequence and therefore quite legal and subject to the licence whether lawyers now considered it foreign or not. There was clearly a big misunderstanding here. The big question for him now was, was it accidental or deliberate? In either case, Agrigene had the right to be annoyed and the more he thought about it, the more he could understand their frustration.

In the present climate of distrust over GM technology however, the company might still have an uphill struggle on their hands, whatever the justness of their cause. Prosecution counsel simply asking in court, ‘Were there or were there not three foreign genes present in the strain when you were licensed for two?’ might carry the day. The company’s reply of, ‘Yes but...’ followed by an explanation, might simply be swept away by the flow of public opinion. There were none as deaf as those who did not want to hear.

Steven moved on to the final section of the file and found the report on the three boys from the village who had gone swimming in the canal. The Sci Med computer had been programmed to pick up on anything unusual happening in the Inspectorate’s current areas of interest, whether it appeared at first glance to be relevant or not. The simple supposition was that no one really knew what was relevant and what was not at the outset of an investigation. Accordingly, the computer would collate all local newspaper reports and police incident reports emanating from the geographical area and incorporate them into the file, hence the local newspaper report on three boys who had contracted Weil’s disease.

Thirteen-year-olds going swimming in a canal seemed daft when viewed with the unfailing accuracy of adult hindsight but had probably been perfectly understandable at the time, he thought. When you were that age, you did what felt good without stopping to think. Young boys had never been noted for their foresight and vision and never would be. This was part of growing up. Learning the hard way was part of the curriculum. They’d probably never even heard of Weil’s disease or the fact you got it from contact with rat urine or that canals were one of the commonest sources of it. It was an odd thing about the rat having attacked one of them though. He hoped that the kid would be all right. The working file would be updated daily by the computer and any change transmitted to his laptop when he logged on each morning.

It was just after nine in the evening when Steven poured himself a gin and tonic and got out a fresh sheet of paper to write down a summary of his thoughts as a prelude to forming a plan of action. Some aspects of the affair seemed pretty straightforward. A farmer, growing GM crops on his land at the behest of a properly licensed biotech company was at loggerheads with the rest of the community. Nothing unusual in that these days; it was something that had been happening all over the country. The main protestor was a would-be organic farmer shouting the odds about cross-pollination — again, par for the course — although in this case, he didn’t as yet have a crop to cross-pollinate! This man was backed by most of the local community who just didn’t like the idea of GM anything — again, nothing out of the ordinary in this, although it did occur to Steven that there was no indication who was paying the legal bills for the protestors. Agrigene could afford a legal battle. Could Rafferty and his fellow villagers?

A lab report from a government lab — he underlined this — gave the impression of the presence of a third, unlicensed foreign gene in the crop and hadn’t done much by all accounts to correct what he now believed to be, a false impression. This, he felt, was decidedly odd as was the fact that the original analysis had not been produced to demonstrate that the strains were (must be?) in fact identical.

It was normal practice for Sci-Med investigators to spend as much time as they felt necessary, familiarising themselves with their assignment file before starting out on their investigation. Occasionally it was necessary for them to be sent on mini-courses if the subject matter should turn out to be highly specialised. This usually involved Sci-Med setting up a one to one meeting with an acknowledged expert in the relevant field to carry out a personal briefing.

Steven saw no need for any crash course in this instance; he felt quite at home with the technical elements of the investigation, but he did want to ask some questions. Firstly, he wanted to know if it were normal practice for government labs to carry out private contract work — as the MAFF lab had apparently done on this occasion. He would also ask Sci-Med if they had any information about who had paid for this work and who was footing the protestors’ legal costs. Finally, he wanted to know the whereabouts of the original DNA analysis of the Agrigene crop strain. When he had the answers to these questions he would start thinking about heading north.