They hope the gene will help stop juice extracted from raw sugar cane from browning when it is crushed. But scientists, environmentalists and politicians yesterday condemned the move as a step too far down the GM road.

The Daily Express has already revealed research by Chinese scientists to put human genes into tobacco, tomatoes and potatoes. They want to establish whether the genes allow the crops to grow in land contaminated with heavy metals.

Greenpeace campaigner Andy Tait, who was this month cleared in a GM crop-wrecking trial, branded the research as "irresponsible". He said it gave the lie to the biotech industry's claim that GM crops are just an extension of traditional cropbreeding.

Mr Tait added: "We are breaking species barriers in a way that could never happen naturally with entirely unknown impacts on the environment and the food chain. This is incredibly irresponsible behaviour by companies obsessed with short-term profit at the expense of sustainable agricultural production."

Professor Carlo Leifert, whose postgraduate students have carried out controlled research into jellyfish genes in plants, found the Australian work "incredibly worrying".

One of his students at Aberdeen University had discovered that inserting a jellyfish gene into a bacterium rendered its original function - a control of soil diseases - "useless".

Professor Leifert said: "It is another example of the completely unpredictable nature of genetic transformation. By putting the jellyfish gene into sugar cane you could change the toxicity spectrum in the plant."

"This could change the toxins the plant produces to defend itself from insects into toxins that could potentially harm consumers."

Friends of the Earth said the trials were "a step way too far for the public" and branded it "commercial suicide" for any company that bought the sugar if it was ever cleared for consumption. Sugar manufacturers also revealed that they would not sell the GM product should it ever come to market. Tate & Lyle and British Sugar are both GM free and say they intend to remain so.

Liberal Democrat Consumer Affairs spokesman Norman Baker said: "Consumers would be horrified. They want to have confidence when they buy this basic commodity that they are getting sugar not jellyfish. This is particularly worrying for vegetarians. The question is, where will it end?" The controversy began with the announcement this week that Australia's Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee had approved sugar cane using a jellyfish gene for field trials.The cane has already been produced by Australian government scientists and will be grown at three sites in Queensland over the next three years.

© Express Newspapers, 2000