Modification génétique des oléagineux pour de nouvelles matières grasses et perspectives nutritionnelles

Directeur de recherches honoraire à l’Inra, Paris

^* gerard.pascal@paris.inra.fr

Abstract

The difference between the potential applications of genetically modified plants (GMP) and the reality of agriculture is very big; it is enough to compare the laboratory applications published in scientific reviews or the patents, with what is effectively cultivated today. The real applications concern almost exclusively four botanical species, soya, corn, cotton and canola and two types of modifications, herbicide tolerance and insects resistance.

An attempt of prospective is presented here. It is based on the strategies of development of two of the biggest firms of vegetable biotechnologies, Monsanto and DuPont. The recent or future applications in human food or animal feed of GMP which concern fats are rare; they concerned modifications of content in lipids and especially composition in fatty acids essentially in soya, even corn. The current applications concern soya oils with lowered content in α linolenic acid which have hardly just been launched on the market. In longer term, soya oils containing n-3 long chain fatty acids should make their appearance on the market.

But the major developments will always concern the agronomic characters of plants of large cultures, within the framework of an extensive agriculture in the big agricultural countries or in country in emergence as well as uses of PGM for energy production purposes.