title: Challenges and opportunities for improving food quality and nutrition through plant biotechnology.
abstract: Plant biotechnology has been around since the advent of humankind, resulting in tremendous improvements in plant cultivation through crop domestication, breeding and selection. The emergence of transgenic approaches involving the introduction of defined DNA sequences into plants by humans has rapidly changed the surface of our planet by further expanding the gene pool used by plant breeders for plant improvement. Transgenic approaches in food plants have raised concerns on the merits, social implications, ecological risks and true benefits of plant biotechnology. The recently acquired ability to precisely edit plant genomes by modifying native genes without introducing new genetic material offers new opportunities to rapidly exploit natural variation, create new variation and incorporate changes with the goal to generate more productive and nutritious plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44961, United States; Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44961, United States.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44961, United States; Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44961, United States.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Finer
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44961, United States; Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, United States; Center for Applied Plant Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, United States. Electronic address: grotewold.1@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grotewold
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D063427:Food Quality; D006801:Humans; D009753:Nutritive Value; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified