What exactly is a transgenic plant?
A transgenic plant is one that contains a gene or genes which have been introduced artificially into the plant’s genetic makeup using a set of several biotechnology techniques collectively known as recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology. DNA spliced to the coding portion of the genes that serves to regulate how they function is also transferred into the host plant. The inserted genes, called transgenes when they are inserted into the new host plant, may come from another plant of the same or a different species, or a completely unrelated kind of organism like bacteria or animals. Bt corn varieties, for example, contain a gene from a bacterium (Bacillus thuringiensis) found in the soil that causes the transgenic corn to produce an insecticidal protein. The gene being transferred may have its genetic code altered to modify its function, in addition to having different regulatory sequences spliced on to control how it is expressed (switched on or off) in the plant. The process of moving genes
