- Biological containment
Biological containment (or biocontainment) describes measures aimed at preventing
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and theirtransgenes from spreading into the environment (for containment methods in closed research environments, seeBiosafety level ).In agriculture, biocontainment is helpful in protecting conventional and organic fields from admixture with GM crops growing on neighbouring fields. With the end of the de-facto moratorium on genetically modified plants in Europe, several research programmes (e.g.
Co-Extra ,Transcontainer ) have begun investigating biological containment strategies for GMOs. Among the techniques under consideration are three major strategies based on cleistogamous plants, male-sterile plants and transplastomic plants.Biocontainment strategies
* In cleistogamous plants, flowers do not open, and thus release no pollen.
* In male-sterile plants, no pollen is produced.
* Intransplastomic plants , the genetic modification has been integrated in the DNA ofchloroplasts , and the cell nucleus contains no transgenes; in some plant species, the pollen contains no chloroplasts and thus no transgenes.External links
* [http://www.coextra.eu/research_themes/topics188.html Co-Extra research on biocontainment]
* [http://www.transcontainer.org Transcontainer research on biocontainment]
* [http://www.gmo-safety.eu/en Biological safety research on GMOs]
* [http://www.TradelineInc.com/BIO2008 The 2008 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities]
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