New Plant Breeding Techniques: Additional tools in breeders toolbox

The term "New Plant Breeding Techniques" refers to a group of procedures developed to increase the effectiveness and accuracy of plant breeding. These techniques are used to reduce the breeding programme from decades to years. Genetic modification is commonly used in these but the final product is developed without any foreign DNA. Genetic modification can be done by directly introducing the DNA or by temporarily inserting recombinant DNA which causes mutation in an already-existing gene in the plant's genome, or it can be used to remove a gene or its regulatory regions. In a third variety of modern plant breeding techniques, temporarily injected recombinant DNA modifies the expression of one or more genes that are present in the plant, but does not cause any alteration to the DNA itself. These techniques can be used to address the difficulties encountered in conventional plant breeding methods.