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Sustainability
Sustainable means meeting the economical, ecological and social requirements of modern society. Concomitantly the developmental opportunities of future generation should not be compromised.
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Recombination
Process during which a new combination of DNA occurs. As a natural process, recombination occurs during the fusion of the egg cell and the sperm cell. In so-called in vitro recombination (i.e. outside the body), molecular genetic methods are used to combine DNA sections of different origins.
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Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
Macromolecule, whose individual building blocks are ribonucleotides. Ribonucleotides comprise a molecule of sugar (ribose), a molecule of phosphoric acid and a nucleic base. RNA molecules are normally single-stranded. As mRNA, tRNA and rRNA, it fulfills various functions in the production of proteins. The "building instructions" for proteins are stored in the DNA.
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Smart Breeding
The term smart breeding or precision breeding designates a specific form of breeding. In the process, the genetic material of plants is initially analyzed before the plants which are to be crossed with each other have been selected. To achieve this, the same methods are used as in plant biotechnology. However, no genes foreign to the species is inserted in the DNA.
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Stress tolerance
Drought, cold, or saline soils prevent crop plants from growing optimally. These unfavorable conditions are also termed "stress". Genetic engineering can contribute to make plants more resistant to this "stress".
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Traits
Traits are certain quality characteristics with which plants can be equipped by means of genetic engineering methods. A distinction is made between "input traits", which influence the growth characteristics of a plant, and "output traits", which can alter the components, e.g. the fatty acids of a plant.
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Transgenic organisms
Transgenic organisms (microorganisms, plants or animals) are genetically modified organisms. By means of genetic engineering methods, a foreign gene has been added to them. Thus, transgenic organisms are thus organisms altered by genetic engineering.
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Vitamins
Organic compounds which cannot normally be produced by highly developed living organisms. Since they are active in metabolism, they must be obtained from food.
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White biotechnology
White biotechnology - also termed industrial biotechnology - uses micro-organisms and enzymes to produce chemical products. The methods of white biotechnology are fermentation and biocatalysis.
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