Rothamsted Research has sought permission from Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to run a series of trials using genetically
modified (GM) Camelina plants.

The application is for a five-year project, ending in 2023, with plants
being sown in April, and harvested in September and follows previous GM
Camelina trials carried out in 2018 across two sites in Hertfordshire and
Suffolk.

The first part of the trial will determine performance in the field, and the
seed oil yield, of transgenic Camelina plants that have been engineered to
accumulate polyunsaturated fatty acids in their seeds. The second strand of
work will look at the performance of Camelina plants whose metabolism has
been altered to increase seed oil content. The final part will investigate
the performance of Camelina plants engineered to contain less sinapine in
their seeds. Sinapine is a bitter-tasting chemical that makes the
protein-rich seed meal less palatable as an animal feed.

[www.rothamsted.ac.uk]