Biotechnology Glossary

Agricultural technology: technology based on the domestication of wild plants and animals to create crops. Primitive crop cultivars, also known as land races, were adapted to local growing conditions and preferences. Today's crops are the result of thousands of years of gradual selection.
Agronomic/field/row crops: agricultural crops grown on larger acreages for food or nonfood products, including grains, alfalfa, field corn, soybeans, canola and cotton.
Allele: in biotechnology, a single transformation event which contains the genetic trait of interest and expresses the desired phenotype.
Biotech foods: those produced with genetically engineered crops or ingredients.
Biotechnology: the use of living organisms or their vital processes or components to provide new products. In modern usage, agricultural biotechnology refers to genetically engineered (GE) crop plants.
In this issue, biotech, GE, genetically modified (GM) and transgenic are used interchangeably.
Chromosome: the organized structure containing DNA and genetic information.
Conventional/traditional breeding: genetic modification of plants through sexual crosses using parents selected for desirable traits.
Cultivar: a particular cultivated variety of a domesticated plant species.
Deregulation: the governmental approval of a biotech cultivar for commercial release in the United States without further regulatory restrictions on its production or utilization.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): carrier of primary genetic information in most organisms.
Expression: the manifestation of a characteristic specified by a gene; also refers to the production of proteins
by a genetically engineered organism.
Gene: the basic unit of informational inheritance consisting of a sequence of DNA and generally occupying a specific position within the genome.
Genetically engineered (GE)/genetically modified organisms (GMO): organisms with new combinations of genetic material. DNA from the same or another organism is modified in the laboratory and transformed into an organism in which the specific sequence does not naturally occur.
Genetics: the science of the transmission
of characteristics between generations.
Genotype: the total of all genetic information contained in an organism.
Germplasm: genetically distinct variants
of a species that can represent a valuable natural resource of plant diversity.
Graft: a plant bud, shoot or scion that is inserted into the stem or stock of another plant, where it continues to grow.
Horticultural crops: fruits, vegetables, sweet corn, nuts, ornamental and landscape plants that are generally grown on smaller acreages than agronomic/field crops.
Hybrid: the offspring of a specific cross between two genetically distinct (usually inbred) parents.
Intellectual property rights (IPR):
the legal rights to the use of the results from research, invention and other creative activity, such as the rights provided by patents or copyrights.
Living modified organisms (LMOs): any living organisms (including seeds, viruses or viroids) that possess a novel combination of genetic material, obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.
Marker (genetic): a distinguishing feature that can be used to identify a particular gene location on a chromosome.
Phenotype: appearance or other characteristics of an organism, which
result from interactions of its genetic constitution with the environment.
Protein: a molecule composed of a chain of many amino acids that acquires a specific folded shape due to the amino acid sequence.
Recombinant DNA: DNA formed external to a living cell by joining DNA from two
or more different sources in the laboratory.
Sexual crosses: the transfer of pollen from one plant to the pistil of another closely related plant to result in seeds that carry traits derived from both parents.
Tissue culture (in plant biotechnology):
the process of regeneration of a plant from single cells, isolated embryos or small bits of plant tissue on liquid or solid media.
Trait: a phenotypic characteristic associated with the expression of one or more genes.
Transformation: the process of introducing a cloned gene into an organism.
Transgenic: an organism containing genetic material from other species introduced via the process of transformation.

Portions of this glossary were adapted from ANR Publication 8043, Biotechnology Provides New Tools for Plant Breeding by Trevor Suslow, Bruce Thomas and Kent Bradford.

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