Alternative Method to Introduce GM Material into Plant

Scientists at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, suggest an alternative and safer approach to introduce genetic material into a plant, and to solve the problem of genes escaping into the environment. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Pal Maliga and Zora Syab propose implanting the genes into the plastid where the risk of escape is minimized, instead of the cell nucleus.

“Our work with a tobacco plant model is breathing new life into an approach that had been dismissed out-of-hand for all the wrong reasons,” said Maliga. “Introducing new agriculturally useful genes through the plastid may prove the most effective means for engineering the next generation of GM crops.”

Contact Joseph Blumberg at blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu for additional information.