Assists policymakers in evaluating the appropriate scientific methods for detecting unintended changes in food and assessing the potential for adverse health effects from genetically modified products. In this book, the committee recommended that greater scrutiny should be given to foods containing new compounds or unusual amounts of naturally occurring substances, regardless of the method used to create them. The book offers a framework to guide federal agencies in selecting the route of safety assessment. It identifies and recommends several pre- and post-market approaches to guide the assessment of unintended compositional changes that could result from genetically modified foods and research avenues to fill the knowledge gaps.

There are clearly many directions in which the further development of the GUS gene fusion system can progress. Some of these have been outlined above, but others can be imagined. There are no reasons to limit our conceptions of the use of GUS gene fusions to analysis and manipulation of single genes. We can envision numerous marked genes - perhaps with several new fusion systems - giving valuable information about gene interaction, or population structure. The study of plan- pathogen and plant symbiont interactions can progress rapidly with simple quantitative markers for genes and individuals. We can imagine ways of using gene fusions to report on crop physiology or other complex phenotypes, thereby enhancing the accuracy and speed of screening. Introduction of the biosynthetic pathway for glucuronide detoxification by expressing genes for the UDP-glucuronyl transferases in plants may result in novel mechanisms for plants to deal with xenobiotics such as insecticides or herbicides. Synthesis of substrates, which until now has been performed chemicall- resulting in expensive compounds - can be done biosynthetically. This should make the system not only the most powerful gene fusion system for agriculture, but also the most accessible.

"The book...is, in fact, a short text on the many practical problems...associated with translating the explosion in basic biotechnological research into the next Green Revolution," explains Economic Botany. The book is "a concise and accurate narrative, that also manages to be interesting and personal...a splendid little book." Biotechnology states, "Because of the clarity with which it is written, this thin volume makes a major contribution to improving public understanding of genetic engineering's potential for enlarging the world's food supply...and can be profitably read by practically anyone interested in application of molecular biology to improvement of productivity in agriculture."

Plant Biotechnology presents a balanced, objective exploration of the technology behind genetic manipulation, and its application to the growth and cultivation of plants. The book describes the techniques underpinning genetic manipulation and makes extensive use of case studies to illustrate how this influential tool is used in practice.

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation. Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.

This book serves the teachers, researchers and the students as a handy and concise reference as well as guidebook while designing and planning for use of the advanced technologies for crop improvement. The content of the book is designed to cover the latest genome engineering techniques for crop improvement. The conventional breeding has got its limitations such as non-availability of desired genes within the genepool. In many cases, breeding has been highly used and it has nearly reached its highest limit so far as the productivity and production of crops are concerned. However, with increasing need of food and decreasing resources, including water, land, labour, etc., to feed the growing population, the alternative available ways of increasing crop productivity need to be explored and exploited. Genome engineering has a wide scope that includes technologies such as genetic engineering and transgenesis, RNA technologies, CRISPR, cisgenics and subgenics for better productivity and more efficient biotic and abiotic stress management. Therefore, the book is planned to enlighten the readers with the advanced technologies with examples and case studies, whenever possible. Efforts will be made to emphasize on general efforts on various major food crops; however, it would also be made clear that such efforts could be taken as proofs of concepts and that this could be extrapolated keeping the demand in mind.

The results obtained to date involving the use of in ~ methods to facilitate wide hybridization in plants are voluminous and impressive. The techniques of embryo culture, ovule culture, and in~ pollination and fertilization represent an extension of the normal sexual hybridization process. Successes recorded in obtaining hybrids stem largely from circumventing prezygotic or postzygotic hybridization barriers. Numerous recent successful hybridizations were possible because of the development of improved tissue and cell culture systems for crop plants and attention given to genotypes used in hybridization attempts. Interspecific and intergeneric hybridization utilizing the process of protoplast fusion will bypass the limits set by all sexual me'thods. In addition to combining complete genomes from two different species through protoplast fusion, this system affords unique opportunities for creating novel cytoplasmic combinations, transfer of individual chromosomes, transfer of cytoplasmic organelles, manipulation of male sterility, and for single gene transfer. Some caution must be noted with regard to the extent of hybridization possible between distantly related species. Although practically no limit exists to the physical fusion of protoplasts from widely divergent species, the restrictions imposed by somatic incompatibility have not been adequately addressed. Regeneration of plants from the protoplast or single heterokaryon level is still a major hurdle for many important crop species before somatic cell fusion can be exploited to produce interspecific and intergeneric hybrids. Identification and selection of hybrids is also a limitation to the efficient application of cell fusion methods.