08/14/06 First Genetically Engineered Plant

First genetically engineered plant. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Genetic engineering is the process of manipulating genes, usually outside an organism`s normal reproductive process. It involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics or attributes physiologically or physically, such as making a crop resistant to a herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme. During the recent Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. media day - participants heard of Syngenta's progress in biotechnology from Senior Syngenta Fellow Mary Dell Chilton. In the early 1980s - Chilton and her team were the first to use agrobacterium genetic modification to produce the first genetically modified plant. But as Chilton explains - that wasn't what she planned to do when she initially joined the agrobacterium and plant transformation project. CHILTON: When I was a graduate student I became very interested in DNA experiments and we knew that bacterial DNA could be taken up by a bacterium and incorporated into its chromosomal DNA. I went from there to studying how similar the DNA has to be in order for the bacterium to be able to do that. I basically intellectually cut my teeth on the idea that you have to have homeology between the donor DNA and the DNA of the recipient cell. And there for I came with the attitude this bacterium can't be putting DNA into that plant. I came to prove that wasn't true. But according to Chilton - the data ultimately proved her wrong. CHILTON: I guess in January 1983 a number of speakers at the Miami Winter Symposium announced a list of results that showed that we had all the pieces in hand now to make a useful genetically engineered plant. So that was the birth of the possibility. It wasn't yet finished technology but we knew we could do it. Chilton says that biotech research will allow Syngenta to create plants that fend off diseases and insect pests - provide more nutritional value - and offer desired traits like drought resistance. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.