title: Not as they seem.
abstract: I recount the early influences that directed me toward a career in research and then describe some efforts investigating Cowpea mosaic virus and the satellite RNA of Tobacco ringspot virus. These descriptions have a common theme of surprise, how things often can be not as they are expected to be. Finally, I examine the widely held belief that a plant transgene derived from a distant taxonomic source presents a greater risk than a transgene derived from a closely related plant and contend that this also is a situation in which things may not be as they initially seem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA. gebruening@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bruening
mesh_terms: D017798:Comovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D017860:Nepovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D061066:Plant Pathology / Q000266:history; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D019244:RNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D019244:RNA, Satellite; D012367:RNA, Viral