LIFE BOX 6.2. TONY CONNERTony Conner, Senior Scientist, New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food
Research; Professorial Fellow, Bio-Protection & Ecology Division, Lincoln
University, New Zealand
Tony Connerwith a transgenic potato
plant.
Towards designer plants. The first
transgenic plants were developed in
1983 while I was studying toward my
PhD in plant genetics at the University
of California, Davis. At the time, my
research involved somatic cell selection
in Nicotiana plumbaginifolia as a
model system. Upon graduation it was
an obvious step to move toward devel-
oping transformation systems for crop
plants. I was very fortunate to be
offered a position back in my home
country of New Zealand to establish a
research programme in applying the
emerging tools in plant biotechnology
to crop improvement.
It was an exceptionally exciting time to
be involved in plant science. My
research initially focused on potatoes,
asparagus, and a few other vegetableand arable crops. In those early days it
was rewarding to be associated with
the first examples ofAgrobacterium-
mediated transformation of monocotyle-
donous plants (asparagus) and some of
the very first field tests on transgenic
plants. Research advances in plant mol-
ecular biology were rapidly gaining
momentum, and this was matched by
the development of molecular tools for
analysing genetic variation in plant
populations and technologies for
genetic engineering in a diverse range
of plant species.
Integration of these new technologies
into breeding programs of crops pre-
sented some important challenges.
Often the elite material of plant breeders
destined to become the future cultivars
for the agricultural industries was
more difficult to work with than other
laboratory-based model systems. This
was especially the case for developing
transformation systems for gene transfer
via genetic engineering.
However, public concerns about the
deliberate release of transgenic crops
into the agricultural environment
quickly changed research agendas.
Considerable effort was required to par-
ticipate in the public debate on the
merits and biosafety of transgenic crops
and absorbed much of my time for
about a decade. During this time my
research efforts were directed more to
investigating the environmental impacts
and food safety of transgenic crops.
More recently my research focus
changed to refining vectors systems for
gene transfer to plants. This work has
been motivated by the need to eliminate
components of vectors that regulatorys
[regulatory systems] find less acceptable.LIFE BOX 6.2. TONY CONNER 155