Description
Transgenic
crops now represent a substantial portion of major
crops globally (12% of cotton, 58% of soybeans, and 23% of
corn planted in 1998). Most of the acreage in transgenic
crops is in the United States (68%), Argentina (23%), and
Canada (7%), and almost all of it is planted in herbicideresistant
crops (74%).Modification of the plant genome
may be used to achieve a variety of objectives: resistance
to insects, drought tolerance, and so on, which have long
been pursued by “classical” plant breeding approaches, but
the combination of genetic modification techniques, rapid
throughput screening, and combinatorial chemistry has
made it more opportune formajor companies to strengthen
and diversify their investment in pest control.
