Research efforts in engineering genes in major crop plants are not restricted to one segment of the scientific community. These investigations are being actively pursued by governments worldwide, major corporations, and private institutions. And as research activity in this field blossoms, so will opportunities for molecular biologists and plant geneticists.
What makes these future advances noteworthy is that they will be accomplished not through the time-honored technique of genetic cross-breeding, but by methods that introduce new genetic material directly into a plant's DNA. "The tools to transfer genes between plants are being developed now, and they are very powerful," says Randall Niedz of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Horticultural Research Laboratory in Orlando, Fla. "People just need to realize that these tools are useless without the basic understanding of the biochemistry."
The genetic code in plants is similar to that in animals, but some species of plants also contain a ...
