Transgenic Crops: The Next Generation, or an Example of 2020 Vision

Genetically modified, i.e. transgenic crops, are now being grownon several million acres throughout the world, mainly in NorthAmerica. Most of these ‘first generation’ productshave specific agronomic traits designed to improve the efficiencyof production. For example herbicide tolerant soybean and insectresistant corn are the two most widely grown transgenic crops.Increasingly, the new transgenic varieties under test containproduct quality or other higher value traits intended to providespecific benefits to the end user whether it be the producerof specialist chemicals or the consumer. This review describesexamples of these ‘second generation’ traits andattempts to predict the range of household, medical, industrialand environmental products that might become available overthe next 20 years. Copyright 1999 Annals of Botany Company Transgenes, transgenic plants, genetically modified plants, genetically modified food, plant breeding.