Producing New Crop Species

New technologies enable the introduction of new genes derived from unrelated species into plants. This has produced crops with novel properties, such as:

• Enhanced defense against pathogens
• Flowering patterns that are altered both in time and color
• Enhanced nutritional features reflecting changes in either protein or oil content
• Dramatic reduction in the generation time for certain woody species
• Modified tobacco plants that produce life-saving biochemical compounds
• Altered abidopsis plants, from the mustard family, that produce plastic
• Genetically modified plants that remove toxic compounds from the soil– this development has enormous potential for the bioremediation of toxic land sites