Multigene plant transformation: More is better

Since the early 1980s, when the first transgenic plants were created, scientists have dreamed of how they could alter a plant to exhibit novel characteristics. Today, we have genetically engineered plants that are herbicide-tolerant, resistant to certain insect, fungal, or viral pathogens, have altered flower color, or bear fruit with altered ripening characteristics, to name but a few. Even so, several traits of potential commercial significance (e.g., simultaneous resistance to several different pathogens, crop yield, and nutrient composition) have remained elusive, largely because no method exists for expressing numerous transgenes in tandem to investigate genetic pathways and their effect on phenotype. In this issue, Chen et al. use particle bombardment to transform and regenerate rice plants containing up to 13 different transgenes. Their preliminary studies may pave the way to a general approach for multigene transformation in plants.