BASF develops new GM crops through DNA manipulation
 

Germany-based BASF in collaboration with US plant science company Cibus, has announced the development of a new generation of genetically altered crops by manipulating the plant's own DNA without inserting foreign genes.
 
The technology, known as "directed mutagenesis", produces new traits such as herbicide resistance. The lack of added genes is likely to help avoid the political and regulatory objections that have delayed the introduction of GM crops into the EU. 
 
BASF is collaborating with Cibus, a privately owned US plant science company, which originally discovered how to carry out directed mutagenesis.
 
The two companies have produced strains of canola (oilseed rape) that tolerate BASF's Clearfield herbicides.
 
The idea is that farmers will sow herbicide-resistant oilseed rape and later spray the growing plants with Clearfield to kill weeds in the field without harming the crop.
 
BASF expects to have its new herbicide-resistant oilseed rape crops on the market as soon as 2013, said Dale Carlson, a senior plant scientist with the company. That is much quicker than commercialising a new GM trait, because the regulatory process is less demanding.