Review

Transgenic crops: Current challenges and future perspectives

Shaukat Ali¹*, Yusuf Zafar¹ Zhang Xianyin², Ghulam Muhammad Ali¹ and Tu Jumin²

¹National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan.

²College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University-310029, P.R., China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: shaukat_parc@yahoo.co.in.

Accepted 28 October, 2008

The history of transgenic crops at present can be divided in two parts. The first era deals with the development of Genetically Modified (GM) crops. As the time went on, various social, political, environmental and technical issues related to transgenic crops took their birth. The development of transgenic crops has raised some issues more especially the problem of food and environmental safety, some technical impacts like effect on non target organisms, development of cross pest resistance, use of selectable marker genes, etc. There exists a thought that the pace of research in genetic engineering of crop plants may some day lead to the development of variations that will not ensure the survival of living creatures including human beings. Most of such concerns are just psychological and are often based on fear of negative political fall out or media coverage. The genetic engineering of crop plants is now moving towards the course of correction. It is the responsibility of concerned researchers to interpret such hazards and their solutions on technical basis and, therefore, establish a based line of acceptance for transgenic crops to the consumers.

Key words: Environment, biosafety, transgenic crops.