The intragenic approach as a new extension to traditional plant breeding

The novel intragenic approach to genetic engineering improves existing varieties by eliminating undesirable features and activating dormant traits. It transforms plants with native expression cassettes to fine-tune the activity and/or tissue specificity of target genes. Any intragenic modification of traits could, at least in theory, also be accomplished by traditional breeding and transgenic modification. However, the new approach is unique in avoiding the transfer of unknown or foreign DNA. By consequently eliminating various potential risk factors, this method represents a relatively safe approach to crop improvement. Therefore, we argue that intragenic crops should be cleared through the regulatory process in a timely and cost-effective manner. The novel intragenic approach to genetic engineering improves existing varieties by eliminating undesirable features and activating dormant traits. It transforms plants with native expression cassettes to fine-tune the activity and/or tissue specificity of target genes. Any intragenic modification of traits could, at least in theory, also be accomplished by traditional breeding and transgenic modification. However, the new approach is unique in avoiding the transfer of unknown or foreign DNA. By consequently eliminating various potential risk factors, this method represents a relatively safe approach to crop improvement. Therefore, we argue that intragenic crops should be cleared through the regulatory process in a timely and cost-effective manner. a transformed plant developed by transferring at least some DNA from one plant to a sexually incompatible plant that belongs to the same family. elements such as genes, promoters or transfer DNA borders that did not evolve within the sexual compatibility group of the target plant. a transformed plant that only contains genetic elements derived from within the sexual compatibility group. a plant-derived transfer DNA that contains border-like elements and is used as alternative to the T-DNA. the group of plant species that is able to exchange genetic material through interbreeding and represents the source of genetic material that is accessible to introgression breeding. the physiological or biochemical barriers that prevent pairing or successful fertilization across different sexual compatibility groups. a gene that does not have a naturally evolved counterpart. In one example, the codons of a bacterial gene are replaced by codons that are more frequently used in a target crop to enhance translational efficiency. Another example relates to the PCR-based shuffling of related genes to produce variants that can then be selected for enhanced functional activity. a DNA segment, delineated by Agrobacterium-derived left and right border regions, that can be transferred from a plasmid in Agrobacterium to plant cell nuclei. although initially used to indicate any gene that was introduced into a plant's genome through transformation, this term is currently often reserved for genes derived from a different family. a transformed plant containing DNA from a different plant family. a transformed plant carrying synthetic DNA.