Non‐seed plants are emerging gene sources for agriculture and insect control proteins

SUMMARY

The non‐seed plants (e.g., charophyte algae, bryophytes, and ferns) have multiple human uses, but their contributions to agriculture and research have lagged behind seed plants. While sharing broadly conserved biology with seed plants and the major crops, non‐seed plants sometimes possess alternative molecular and physiological adaptations. These adaptations may guide crop improvements. One such area is the presence of multiple classes of insecticidal proteins found in non‐seed plant genomes which are either absent or widely diverged in seed plants. There are documented uses of non‐seed plants, and ferns for example have been used in human diets. Among the occasional identifiable toxins or antinutritive components present in non‐seed plants, none include these insecticidal proteins. Apart from these discrete risk factors which can be addressed in the safety assessment, there should be no general safety concern about sourcing genes from non‐seed plant species.

Significance Statement

Lower plants such as ferns and mosses are underexplored resources for agriculture. Recent investigations have revealed that lower plants contain genes for insecticidal proteins that are now being leveraged for transgenic crop improvement.