Maize without pollen: Restricting outcrossing
On a field near Braunschweig, scientists from the Julius Kühn Institute are investigating whether their new concept to prevent the spread of genetically modified maize plants is working. The cultivation of cytoplasmic male-sterile maize is intended to make it possible to prevent cross-pollination with neighbouring maize fields. This is called biological containment or biocontainment.
Research Live
In search of a rare event
A trial field near Rostock: Conventional petunias with white flowers are pollinated with pollen from lilac-coloured petunias. These have been genetically modified, but the new genetic information is contained in the plastids rather than in the cell nucleus. Plastids are small units of a plant cell that have their own DNA. Since the genetic information in the plastids is passed on via pollen only in rare cases, it could be a means of restricting the spread of new genes. Scientists at the University of Rostock are now investigating under field conditions how frequently this rare event – outcrossing of plastid genes – occurs.more
Research Live
“After this year we will know whether cleistogamic oilseed rape is a suitable method for the biological containment of foreign genes.”
A flowering oilseed rape field near Braunschweig: While one half of the field glows bright yellow, the other half looks somewhat paler. This half is being used to grow cleistogamic oilseed rape, i.e. plants with flowers that do not open. The idea is to prevent the plants from releasing pollen into the environment. This trait could be used in future for the biological containment of foreign genes in genetically modified oilseed rape plants. This field trial is designed to show whether the method works in practice. more
Research Confinement
Biological confinement of new genes
Between 2008 and 2011, a number of different research projects are developing and checking methods for containing the spread of genetically modified plants (confinement). more
Research Live
“We do not develop products. We test what is scientifically possible.”
Plastids are self-contained units in plant cells that contain genetic information, i.e. DNA. Researchers began to focus on them around 15 years ago when scientists first succeeded in modifying the DNA in the plastids of the model plant tobacco. Today researchers all over the world are working on applying plastid transformation to agricultural crops. GMO Safety spoke to Ralph Bock and members of his team at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm about what makes this method so interesting. more
Focus
Pharma plants: Status report
Around the world, efforts are increasing to use genetically modified plants in the same way that e.g. bacteria and yeasts have been used until now, as production organisms for vaccines and other pharmaceutical substances. In the USA and Canada, but increasingly also in Europe, and especially France, pharma plants are being tested in release trials and the drugs they produce are already undergoing clinical tests. For biological safety, the cultivation of pharma plants poses completely new challenges. more
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