SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Genes Fired Into Corn to Produce a Better Plant

Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Albany, Calif., have found a way to transfer genes into corn cells, offering a way to introduce valuable traits, such as disease resistance, into corn and related crops.

Molecular biologist Michael Fromm and his colleagues announced last week at a symposium in Keystone, Colo., that they used a shotgun-like “gene gun” that fired two marker genes into specially cultured batches of corn genes. The cells were subsequently nurtured into fertile corn plants, which have produced a new generation of corn seedlings, now growing in the greenhouse, that contain the marker genes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which announced the results jointly with Monsanto Co., said plant biotechnologists had faced more difficulty in transferring genes into corn and other so-called monocot plants than with dicots, such as tomatoes.