English
DeutschGA21 maize is one of Syngenta's Roundup Ready maizes. It was genetically engineered by particle acceleration (biolistic) transformation to be tolerant to glyphosate-containing herbicides (Roundup).
Through the transformation three complete copies of the m-epsps gene were inserted into the maize genome.
GA21 maize is currently approved for cultivation in the USA, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines. In 2009 GA21 maize was commercially grown in the USA, Canada and Argentina. An application for cultivation is pending. Field trials with GA21 are conducted in Spain and Rumania. One of the purposes of these field trials is variety registration.
The application for GA21 for food and feed uses, import and processing was assessed by the GMO Panel together with the "Application for renewal of authorisation for continued marketing of food additives, feed materials and feed additives produced from GA21 Maize EFSA-GMO-RX-GA21."
In the EU GA21 maize was authorized for food/feed by the EU Commission in 2008 after no qualified majority of the EU Council of Ministers voted in favour or against it in 2007. The authorisation is valid until 2018.
