Blooming biotech

Abstract

A collaboration between US biotech firm Mendel Biotechnology and the large German plant breeder Selecta Klemm aims to exploit the power of plant functional genomics to create a new range of products for the worldwide ornamental plant, or floriculture, market. Focused on developing flowering plants that can adapt to changing environmental conditions, joint venture Ornamental Biosciences, is a rare foray for biotech into modern floriculture. Whether there is room for more than a scattering of such ventures in a field dominated by work on food crops, only time will tell.