Chloroplast Transformation for Improved Biosafety of Biotech Crops

The inheritance of the chloroplasts (the organelles responsible for photosynthesis) in most plants is maternal, as these organelles are not carried by the pollen grains (which produce the sperm cells). The manipulation of the chloroplast genome for crop improvement is therefore considered a very valuable tool for improving the containment of the transgene, and enhancing in this way the biosafety of transgenic plants. A team of researches led by Ralph Bock from the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany have recently evaluated the strictness of maternal inheritance, by measuring the rates at which chloroplasts are transmitted through the pollen. The team reports a low level of paternal inheritance (only 39 seeds were identified with chloroplasts derived from the father plant among over 2 million seeds examined). The results indicate that plastid transformation is a good tool for preventing gene flow. However, in cases where transmission of the transgene through the pollen must be totally prevented, the team recommends adopting additional containment strategies to eliminate the risk of outcrossing. The research is published in the latest issue of PNAS.

More information is available at
http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/dokumentation/pressemitteilungen/2007
/pressemitteilung200704111/index.html
Read the abstract of the scientific abstract at
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0700008104v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10
&RESULTFORMAT=1&author1=ruf&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and
&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT