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Genetic use restriction technology
Genetic use restriction technology (GURT), also known as terminator technology or suicide seeds, is designed to restrict access to "genetic materials and their associated phenotypic traits." The technology works by activating (or deactivating) specific genes using a controlled stimulus in order to cause second generation seeds to be either infertile or to not have one or more of the desired traits of the first generation plant. GURTs can be used by agricultural firms to enhance protection of their innovations in genetically modified organisms by making it impossible for farmers to reproduce the desired traits on their own. Another possible use is to prevent the escape of genes from genetically modified organisms into the surrounding environment.
Patent applications related to a biological switch mechanism emerged in the early 1990's by companies such as DuPont and Zeneca (today Syngenta). Though the original GURT technology named "Technology Protection System" or "TPS" was developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and Delta & Pine Land Company in the 1990s. The purpose of the development was to protect the intellectual property of biotechnology firms that the United States Department of Agriculture viewed as being a specifically American technological competence. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted the application and issued a patent on March 3rd, 1998, the exclusive rights of the license given to the Delta & Pine Land Company through a research agreement. Monsanto bought Delta & Pine Land Co. acquiring its patents in 2007, although the original patent has since expired. The technology, while still being developed, is not yet commercially available due to the political and scientific controversies that accompanied its development.
GURT was first reported on by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and discussed during the 8th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20–31, 2006.
The GURT process is typically composed of four genetic components: a target gene, a promoter, a trait switch, and a genetic switch, sometimes with slightly different names given in different papers. A typical GURT involves the engineering of a plant that has a target gene in its DNA that expresses when activated by a promoter gene. However, it is separated from the target gene by a blocker sequence that prevents the promoter from accessing the target. When the plant receives a given external input, a genetic switch in the plant takes the input, amplifies it, and converts it into a biological signal. When a trait switch receives the amplified signal, it creates an enzyme that cuts the blocker sequence out. With the blocker sequence eliminated, the promoter gene allows the target gene to express itself in the plant.
In other versions of the process, an operator must bind to the trait switch in order for it to make the enzymes that cut out the blocker sequence. However, there are repressors that bind to the trait switch and prevent it from doing so. In this case, when the external input is applied, the repressors bond to the input instead of to the trait switch, allowing the enzymes to be created that cut the blocker sequence, thereby allowing the trait to be expressed.
Other GURTs embody alternative approaches, such as letting the genetic switch directly affect the blocker sequence and bypass the need for a trait switch.
There are two broad categories of GURTs: Variety-specific genetic use restriction technologies (V-GURTs) and Trait specific genetic use restriction technologies (T-GURTs). The two variants have been described as follows:
V-GURTs are designed to restrict the use of all genetic materials contained in an entire plant variety. Prior to being sold to growers, the seeds of V-GURTs are activated by the seed company. The seeds can germinate, and the plants grow and reproduce normally, but their offspring will be sterile... . Thus, farmers could not save seed from year-to-year to replant. In contrast, T-GURTs only restrict the use of particular traits conferred by a transgene, but seeds are fertile. Growers could replant seed from the previous harvest, but they would not contain the transgenic trait.
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Genetic use restriction technology
Genetic use restriction technology (GURT), also known as terminator technology or suicide seeds, is designed to restrict access to "genetic materials and their associated phenotypic traits." The technology works by activating (or deactivating) specific genes using a controlled stimulus in order to cause second generation seeds to be either infertile or to not have one or more of the desired traits of the first generation plant. GURTs can be used by agricultural firms to enhance protection of their innovations in genetically modified organisms by making it impossible for farmers to reproduce the desired traits on their own. Another possible use is to prevent the escape of genes from genetically modified organisms into the surrounding environment.
Patent applications related to a biological switch mechanism emerged in the early 1990's by companies such as DuPont and Zeneca (today Syngenta). Though the original GURT technology named "Technology Protection System" or "TPS" was developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and Delta & Pine Land Company in the 1990s. The purpose of the development was to protect the intellectual property of biotechnology firms that the United States Department of Agriculture viewed as being a specifically American technological competence. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted the application and issued a patent on March 3rd, 1998, the exclusive rights of the license given to the Delta & Pine Land Company through a research agreement. Monsanto bought Delta & Pine Land Co. acquiring its patents in 2007, although the original patent has since expired. The technology, while still being developed, is not yet commercially available due to the political and scientific controversies that accompanied its development.
GURT was first reported on by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and discussed during the 8th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20–31, 2006.
The GURT process is typically composed of four genetic components: a target gene, a promoter, a trait switch, and a genetic switch, sometimes with slightly different names given in different papers. A typical GURT involves the engineering of a plant that has a target gene in its DNA that expresses when activated by a promoter gene. However, it is separated from the target gene by a blocker sequence that prevents the promoter from accessing the target. When the plant receives a given external input, a genetic switch in the plant takes the input, amplifies it, and converts it into a biological signal. When a trait switch receives the amplified signal, it creates an enzyme that cuts the blocker sequence out. With the blocker sequence eliminated, the promoter gene allows the target gene to express itself in the plant.
In other versions of the process, an operator must bind to the trait switch in order for it to make the enzymes that cut out the blocker sequence. However, there are repressors that bind to the trait switch and prevent it from doing so. In this case, when the external input is applied, the repressors bond to the input instead of to the trait switch, allowing the enzymes to be created that cut the blocker sequence, thereby allowing the trait to be expressed.
Other GURTs embody alternative approaches, such as letting the genetic switch directly affect the blocker sequence and bypass the need for a trait switch.
There are two broad categories of GURTs: Variety-specific genetic use restriction technologies (V-GURTs) and Trait specific genetic use restriction technologies (T-GURTs). The two variants have been described as follows:
V-GURTs are designed to restrict the use of all genetic materials contained in an entire plant variety. Prior to being sold to growers, the seeds of V-GURTs are activated by the seed company. The seeds can germinate, and the plants grow and reproduce normally, but their offspring will be sterile... . Thus, farmers could not save seed from year-to-year to replant. In contrast, T-GURTs only restrict the use of particular traits conferred by a transgene, but seeds are fertile. Growers could replant seed from the previous harvest, but they would not contain the transgenic trait.