Recent Patents on Biosafety Strategies of Selectable Marker Genes in Genetically Modified Crops

Abstract

Genetically modified crops (GMCs) have been planted world wide since 1990s, but the potential insecurity of selectable marker genes raises the questions about GMC safety. Therefore, several researches have been conducted on marker gene safety issues and recently several patents have been issued on this subject. There are two main approaches to achieve this goal: seeking the biosafety selectable marker and eliminating these insecure marker genes after transformation. Results show that these two systems are quite effective. Recent patents on the two ways are discussed in this review.

Biofortification of rice with the essential amino acid lysine: molecular characterization, nutritional evaluation, and field performance

“…When considering the potential commercialization of high-lysine rice, it is important to investigate the integration of target transgenes as well as the selectable marker gene ( Jiang et al , 2014 ; Bartlett et al , 2014 ). In the current study, we elucidated the molecular characteristics of the insertion of the target genes into the genomes of both pyramid transgenic rice lines.…”

A novel dominant selection system for plant transgenics based on phosphite metabolism catalyzed by bacterial alkaline phosphatase

“…With the increasing concerns on their inherent defects, i.e. the potential threats to ecological environment and food safety [4][5][6], development of a biosafety-secured dominant selection marker is of great significance and necessity, and always ongoing [7][8][9][10][11].…”

RepB C-terminus mutation of an ori pRi vector affects plasmid copy number inAgrobacteriumand transgene copy number in plants

“…Single copy, vector backbone-free transgene events are required by government regulatory agencies for commercial transgenic product deployment, and are preferred for many other biotechnology applications. This is because most vector backbones contain antibiotic genes and other not fully characterized sequences, and that multi-copy transgenes may have reduced or silenced gene expression [1–3]. Efforts have been made to increase single copy transgene frequency, and to eliminate the presence of vector backbone sequences in transgenic plants using particle bombardment or Agrobacterium-mediated transformation [4–9].…”