Genetically engineered crop plants

Bt crop A crop plant genetically engineered to produce insecticidal toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Current commercial Bt crops include Bt cotton, Bt corn, and Bt soybeans. 

J. Heller, 1996. Physic Nut Jatropha curcas L. Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized vegetable crops Institute of plant genetics and crop plant research. Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA). Biodiesel fuels and their use in diesel engines. Chicago, IL, August 1995. 

The second event, that of Prodigene s PMP corn, is one immediately relevant for PMP production. In September and October of 2002, in Iowa and Nebraska respectively, APHIS found volunteer corn plants genetically engineered to produce a pharmaceutical to prevent traveler s diarrhea growing in soybean fields in violation of permit conditions. Specifically, Prodigene did not abide by the conditions of their field release permit to eradicate all traces of the experimental crop from the fields, as small quantities of this corn ended up in soybean that was to be processed and sold for human consumption. 

Measurements of behavioral endpoints in honey bees should provide an effective assessment of hazards caused by crop protection chemicals especially when applied to melliferous plants. Under laboratory conditions, the conditioned proboscis extension (CPE) assay provides detectable sub-lethal effects due to pesticides, and also to gene products potentially used in plant genetic engineering (see other chapters of this book). Impairment in olfactory learning abilities have been shown for chemical concentrations at which no additional mortality occurred. Thus, the use of the CPE assay as a method to evaluate the potential effect on the honey bees foraging behavior can help to assess the toxicity of chemicals in a more comprehensive way than by considering the mortality endpoint alone. The CPE procedure can be used to compare responses to different chemicals (Table... 

The techniques of molecular biology have particular potential for rapidly introducing small numbers of single genes. Unfortunately there is strong evidence that the complex compensation mechanisms that exist in plants, and the interactions between different whole-plant and biochemical responses to stress, will make the direct improvement of environmental stress tolerance in crop plants by genetic engineering rather more difficult... 

One of the exciting features of the direct DNA delivery system is that it does not rely on an infection. The limited host range of other vector delivery systems is therefore irrelevant, and the way is opened for genetic engineering of cereals. Cereal protoplasts are equally amenable to uptake of foreign DNA after electroporation and the system therefore has potential for use with the major crop species. However, there is at present one drawback, namely that for cereals it has not yet proved possible to grow fertile whole plants from the genetically transformed cells. 

Wyn Jones, R.G. (1980). An assessment of quarternary ammonium and related compounds as osmotic effectors in crop plants. In Genetic Engineering of Osmoregulation, ed. D.W. Rains, R.C. Valentine and A. Hollaender, pp. 155-70. New York Plenum Press. 

Sandmann, G., Rbmer, S., and Eraser, P.D., Understanding carotenoid metabolism as a necessity for genetic engineering of crop plants, Metabol. Eng. 8, 291, 2006. DellaPenna, D., Plant metabolic engineering. Plant Physiol. 125, 160, 2001. Wurtzel, E.T. and Grotewold, E., Plant metabolic engineering, in Encyclopedia of... 

Genetically engineered traits are being introduced into new crops (e.g. alfalfa and strawberries) and new GM events (traits), which may have a greater impact on human health (e.g. pharmaceutical traits) and the environment (e.g. drought tolerance and plant made industrial products) are being developed. 

Metcalfe, D.D., Astwood, J.D., Townsend, R., Sampson, H.A., Taylor, S.L. and Fuchs, R.L., Assessment of the allergenic potential of foods derived from genetically engineered crop plants. Crit. Rev. FoodSci. Nutr., 36(S), S165-S186, 1996. 

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