From greenman@econet.org Sat Jul 24 12:49:27 1999 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 19:26:23 -0800 From: Douglas B. Johnson To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: easier to swallow? Sanetters, Check out this snipit from Environews. Enviro-Newsbrief July 26, 1999 The following is a daily update summarizing news of interest to EPA staff. It includes information from current news sources: newspapers, newsletters, and other publications. For more information, contact the EPA Headquarters Information Resources Center at (202) 260-5922, or e-mail LIBRARY-HQ. **Viewpoints expressed in the following summaries do not necessarily reflect EPA policy** Scientists Find New Way to Manipulate Plant Genes and Modify Crop Traits. The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 1999, pB6. Genetic engineering of plants may soon be a thing of the past, if a recent breakthrough pans out. The new technique was described in two articles in the current journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Borrowed from a technique that is used to treat genetic illness in humans, the new process does not involve adding any foreign genes. Genes already present in the plant are manipulated to do things, such as modifying a wheat plant for making heartier bread, reducing the caffeine in coffee beans or eliminating fatty acids in cooking oils. One article was written by researchers at Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The other article was written by scientists at Pioneer Hi- Bred International Incorporated, an Iowa seed giant that has agreed to be acquired by the DuPont company. The new method is called "chimeraplasty', and it allows scientists to turn on or off or change genes already present in plants. Because it does not involve the insertion of foreign genes, researcher hope it will be more acceptable to environmentalists who fear unintended consequences of genetically modified plants. There has been much resistance here and especially in the European Union to genetically modified crops. Patents for the new process are held by Kimeragen Incorporated, a closely-held firm in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Kimeragen got the nonprofit Boyce Thompson Institute to help it figure out how to apply its technique to plants. Best Wishes, Douglas B. Johnson, Ph.D. Senior Associate Alameda Center for Environmental Technologies 851 West Midway Avenue Alameda Point Alameda, CA 94501 phone: 510.749.6869 fax: 510.749.6862 email: johnson@greenstart.org To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail