NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., June 11 (UPI) -- U.S. plant geneticists say they may have solved the problem of genetically engineered or modified agriculture crop genes leaking into the environment.
Rutgers University Professor Pal Maliga and research associate Zora Svab advocate what they say is an alternative and more secure means of introducing genetic material into a plant.
In genetically modified crops today, novel genes inserted into a cell nucleus can eventually wind up in pollen grains or seeds that make their way into the environment. The researchers, however, argue for implanting the genes into another component of the cell -- the plastid -- where the risk of escape is minimized.
Plastids, rarely found in pollen, are small bodies inside the cell that facilitate photosynthesis.
"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."
The study appeared in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
