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Tiptoeing around transgenics

Nature Biotechnology volume 30, pages 215–217 (2012)Cite this article

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New techniques for manipulating plant genomes are yielding plants touted as nontransgenic. Will that relieve regulatory burden? Emily Waltz investigates.

The two techniques exemplify a host of new approaches to creating GM plants that, although not always developed with this intent, may allow companies to avoid burdensome regulations designed for the technology of a previous era. As opportunities to, in effect, tiptoe around regulations have appeared, industry players have begun capitalizing on them. “Every time we get together with companies—particularly small companies—the question is posed: How else can we circumvent these regulations?” says Alan McHughen, a biotechnologist and Jefferson Science Fellow in Washington, DC. “It has always been a question,” he says, and now companies are putting their theories into practice.

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  1. Nashville, Tennessee

    Emily Waltz

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  1. Emily Waltz
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Waltz, E. Tiptoeing around transgenics. Nat Biotechnol 30, 215–217 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2143

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