While a third of Americans already try to avoid buying food that has been genetically modified (GM), or treated with antibiotics or hormones, 55 percent, would avoid buying GM food if it were so labeled, according to a survey conducted by ABC News. The poll also found that 62 percent of women, who do most food shopping in the US, would avoid such food.

GM contamination can occur by ways other than being eaten. In a river valley just southwest of Mexico City stands a small patch of teosinte – a wild, weedy grass thought to be the ancient ancestor of corn. As a gentle breeze blows gene-carrying pollen from a nearby crop of maize to its wild relative, the genetic integrity and even survival of this ancient plant and others could be jeopardized, according to new mathematical models. “Gene flow from crops to wild relatives is one of a host of environmental issues that humans must deal with,” says researcher Ralph Haygood. “These models are a resource that can contribute to the discussion.”

Of course, not all GM plants are meant to be eaten; they can also be factories for some of our most precious substances. Agricultural researchers in the US are currently exploring the use of genetically engineered plants for economical and large-scale production of recombinant proteins for industrial, research and clinical applications. Different strategies were developed by plant biotech researchers for protein expression in plant species such as corn, rice, wheat, tobacco, alfalfa, tomato, banana, potato, oilseed rape and soybean. Lee Quarles, of Monsanto Protein Technologies, says that manufacturing costs could be decreased
from four to five folds via plant-based expressions as compared to traditional cell culture techniques.

One of the few specialized genebanks for flowers in the world is celebrating its 2nd birthday this month. In just two short years, the new Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center is taking its place among the 25 functional genebanks of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). The center already has more than 1,500 accessions of ornamental plants from all over the world safely preserved in the collection’s seed cooler. The center is networking with scientists locally and in other countries to explore, collect and conserve more unique germplasm. Until now, the NPGS had only about 3,000 flowering plant types in its collection–despite the fact that, globally, floriculture is about a $50 billion-a-year business.

China is leading the world in the development and research of colored cotton. Nine strains of colored cotton have been approved by governments of different countries for patent rights or naming and have been authorized for mass production. Of the nine widely recognized colored cotton strains, five were developed by Chinese research organizations, primarily the Xinjiang cotton research institute. China was capable of turning out brown and green cotton, said spokesperson Zhang Zhang, adding that researchers from the institute had been working with the hereditary Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to produce red, blue and black cotton by transferring an external colored gene into naturally grown white cotton with genetic engineering technology.

Here in the United States, forestry researchers at Oregon State University have made an important breakthrough for the use of genetic engineering with trees, one of the few types of plants that have most resisted the advances being made elsewhere in the biotechnology revolution. The new findings, just published in the July issue of the international journal Plant Physiology, applied a recently-developed method called “activation tagging” that will allow researchers for the first time to accurately “label” genes in trees, identify their function, induce new gene variations, and learn how the variants will be different. The scientists have also used the technique to control growth and induce “semi-dwarfism” in trees. This advance, after refinement, may be of key importance to the nursery industry or for use in silviculture.

All this and much more starts with a seed. Hmm. Maybe I should revamp this site into SeedScoop…