Genetic Engineering of Perennial Grasses - Trait Modification, Gene Containment and Environmental Impact Assessment.

Perennial grasses are essential components of agriculture and environment, among which turfgrass, forages and biofuel plants play increasingly important roles in modern agriculture practice, significantly impacting agriculture structure, agriculture production, agriculture economy, environment, ecology and global climate. Genetic improvement of perennials using biotechnology approaches is important to the turfgrass industry, biofuel production and the environment, and accumulating evidence has demonstrated the feasibility of genetically engineering various perennial grasses for trait modifications. However, the environmentally responsible utilization of transgenic perennials requires the development of methods for transgene containment. In addition, considering the ‘invasiveness’ of perennial grasses, the use of genetically modified cultivars, despite of the implementation of gene containment scheme, raises additional concerns about the potential greater ecological impact relative to the more domesticated food crop plants. It remains to see what the direct or indirect effects of the transgenes on host biochemistry, physiology, and consequently the potential impacts on non-target organisms and environmental and ecological systems would be. This presentation focuses on turfgrass species summarizing progress in turgrass biotech research, development of gene containment strategies and environmental impact assessment of transgenic products. The presentation aims at providing information promoting public understanding of new technology for use in genetic improvement of perennial grasses and facilitating deregulation and commercialization of perennial transgenic products.