TRANSGENE INACTIVATION - PLANTS FIGHT BACK

Desirable new phenotypes created by the introduction of foreign DNA into plants are frequently unstable following propagation, leading to a loss of the newly acquired traits. This genetic instability is due not to deletion or mutation of the introduced DNA but rather to the inactivation of the transgene. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms that might be responsible for transgene inactivation and examine means of stabilizing gene expression in transgenic plants.