Plant functional genomics: beyond the parts list.

engineering with multiple genes, where problems arising from gene silencing from repeated features of the construct are feared. However, in a recent case of ‘who dares, wins’, transgenic Brassica plants enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids were generated through incorporating nine different transgenes, expressed on a single construct from multiple napin promoters [1]. In spite of the millions of acres of transgenic crops now grown in many different countries, improved traits are still limited primarily to resistance to herbicides and insects conditioned by a handful of transgenes. These technologies were already developed and their impacts being actively debated back in 1996. This year saw regulatory approval for growing herbicide-tolerant alfalfa in the USA, an event that might have an important impact on the future of transgenic crops.