New plant breeding techniques: prospects for the future

cience never stands still and the skill-set of plant breeders through the centuries proves the point. Especially during the last decade, several new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) have been developed which now make it possible to perform genome modifications with an even greater degree of precision than was previously thought possible following earlier breakthroughs in producing genetically modified (GM) plants 1. One effect is that the distinction between NPBTs and the previous genetic modification technologies, which led to GM plants by transferring genes (transgenesis), has led to some confusion about whether NPBT-produced plants should 1 New plant breeding techniques are of special interest because they allow for precise genome modifications and do not necessarily involve transferring entire genes from one organism to another.