Plant biotechnology in agriculture Dominique Job * Laboratoire mixte CNRS/INRA/Bayer CropScience (UMR 1932), Bayer CropScience, 14–20, rue Pierre-Baizet, 69269, Lyon cedex 9, France Received 17 June 2002; accepted 1 October 2002 Abstract Knowledge on plant genomes has progressed during the past few years. Two plant genomes, those of Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, have been sequenced. Our present knowledge of synteny also indicates that, despite plasticity contributing to the diversity of the plant genomes, the organization of genes is conserved within large sections of chromosomes. In parallel, novel plant transformation systems have been proposed, notably with regard to plastid transformation and the removal of selectable marker genes in transgenic plants. Furthermore, a number of recent works considerably widen the potential of plant biotechnology. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS and Société française de biochimie et biologie moléculaire. All rights reserved. Keywords: Biotechnology; Transgenesis; Plants 1. Introduction Prior to agriculture, humans lived as nomadic hunters and could survive solely on wild plant and animal resources. Noticing the immense wealth of the plant and animal king- doms, their successful efforts to domesticate the wild species launched agriculture. Until very recently, plant breeding still relied solely on the accumulated experience of generations of farmers and breeders, that is, on sexual transfer of genes between plant species. However, recent developments in plant molecular biology and genomics now give us access to the knowledge and understanding of plant genomes and even the possibility of modifying them. Plant geneticists have adopted Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism some years ago because of its small diploid genome (the Arabidop- sis genome, at about 120 Mb, is amongst the smallest known plant genomes), low repetitive DNA content, and rapid re- productive rate. Now, the complete sequence of the genome of this plant is known, which will lead to the identification of all its 26,000 genes [1]. Based on this success, the sequencing of various cultivated plant genomes is now well underway (e.g. rice). The rice genome sequence provides a foundation for the improvement of cereals, our most important crops [2,3]. Most importantly, our present knowledge of synteny indicates that, despite plasticity contributing to the diversity of the plant genomes, the organization of genes is conserved within large sections of chromosomes [4–8]. This validates a posteriori the considerable efforts made on model species. Such progress has encouraged a massive surge in plant bio- technology, which is currently changing our vision of crop production and protection. Indeed, this technological progress enables us to insert useful genes into cultivated plants at an incomparably fast rate and, doubtless, in a much more precise manner than with conventional genetic meth- ods. 2. Plant transformation Genetic engineering techniques now allow us to transfer the genes of one species over to another species. Indeed, the intended uses aim to introduce new characters into an organ- ism that otherwise would not have acquired them. These techniques can be applied generally to all living species: bacteria, fungi, viruses, animals, and plants. After undergo- ing genetic engineering, the organisms are referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to indicate that they > Paper presented at the 15th French–Canadian Symposium (Jacques Cartier Conference), organized by the French Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, December 9–10, 2002, Lyon, France * Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-4-72-85-21-75 (or 21-79); fax: +33-4-72-85-22-97 E-mail address: dominique.job@bayercropscience.com (D. Job) Biochimie 84 (2002) 1105–1110 www.elsevier.com/locate/biochi © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS and Société française de biochimie et biologie moléculaire. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 0 0 - 9 0 8 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 3 - 5