GENETIC MODIFICATIONS IN FLORAL CROPS: RESEARCH TO MARKETPLACE

Floriculture is an important area of horticulture, creating billions of dollars of economic activity each year.
The major cut flower and pot plant species are traded as international commodities on a daily basis.
Floriculture is also an area amenable to genetic modification, relying as it does on the continuous generation of new improved and/or novel varieties.
Typically, floricultural crops are not foods, making the regulatory process simpler.
There are several examples of genetic modification in flori-culture but to this point, the only genetically modified floricultural products traded commercially are the carnation flowers developed by Florigene (www. florigene. com.au). Plants of these genetically modified varieties are grown in Colombia and Ecuador and flowers exported to the USA, Japan and Europe.
The flowers are from carnation plants which have been genetically modified to produce the anthocyanidin delphinidin.
As a result of this manipulation flower colour is altered, producing a range of mauve and violet shades unique to this species.
Factors impacting on the lack of genetically modified floricultural products on the marketplace, at a time that genetically modified crops are being more and more widely planted, will be discussed.
These factors include the cost of complying with intellectual property and regulatory requirements that do not apply to conventionally bred floricultural crops.

International Symposium on Biotechnology of Temperate Fruit Crops and Tropical Species

S. Chandler

anthocyanins, carnation, floriculture, genetic modification, intellectual property, regulation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.738.2