Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A construct is a piece of DNA which functions as the vehicle or vector carrying
the target gene into the recipient organism. It has several different regions.
Source: Unpublished USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service database.
Most field releases have involved major crops, particularly corn, which
had about 7,800 field releases approved as of September 2013. More than
2,200 field releases were approved for GE soybeans, more than 1,100 for GE
cotton, and about 900 for GE potatoes (figure 2). Releases approved between
1985 and September 2013 included GE varieties with herbicide tolerance
(6,772), insect resistance (4,809), product quality such as flavor or nutrition
(4,896), agronomic properties (like drought resistance) (5190), and virus/
fungal resistance (2,616) (figure 3). A notable change in R&D activities
between 2005 and 2013, as measured by the field releases of GE varieties, is
the five-fold jump in releases of GE varieties with agronomic properties (like
drought resistance) from 1,043 in 2005 to 5,190 in 2013 (figure 3).
The top release permit-holding institutions include Monsanto (6,782
permits/notifications held), Pioneer/DuPont (1,405), Syngenta (565), and
USDA/ARS (370) (figure 4).
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As of September 24, 2013.
Authorizations for field releases of GE plant varieties are issued by USDA's Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to allow technology providers to
pursue field testing.
Source: Information Systems for Biotechnology (ISB, 2013).
Figure 2. Number of releases approved by APHIS: Top 10 crops (includes permits and
notifications).
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