Lower plants are emerging gene sources for agriculture and insect control proteins.

Abstract

The non-seed lower plants (e.g., charophyte algae, bryophytes, and ferns) have multiple human uses, but their contributions to agriculture and research have lagged seed plants. While sharing broadly conserved biology with seed plants and the major crops, lower plants sometimes possess alternative molecular and physiological adaptations. These adaptations may guide crop improvements. One such area is the presence of multiple classes of insecticidal proteins found in lower plant genomes which are either absent or widely diverged in seed plants. There are documented uses of lower plants, and ferns for example have been used in human diets. Among the occasional identifiable toxins or antinutritive components present in lower plants, none include these insecticidal proteins. Apart from these discrete risk factors which can be addressed in the safety assessment, there should be no general safety concern about sourcing genes from lower plant species.