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- Scotts says the grass—a tall fescue variety—will require less mowing and fewer nutrient inputs and is also glyphosate tolerant. The genetic material that conferred these traits in the new grass comes from various undisclosed plants and is integrated using established biolistics technology. In this technique, a gene gun bombards cells with heavy metal particles coated with plasmid DNA fired at high speed. Because this transformation technique requires no genetic material from bacteria, viruses or other organisms considered plant pests, the resulting enhanced plants are not subject to oversight by the USDA. Scotts notified the USDA in April 2013 of its intentions to develop the grass. In January 2014, the federal agency confirmed that the plant was not a regulated article.
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Eh, it's a bit like 23&Me: it's a new product space that regulatory groups never really thought about. Should school football fields fall under the purview of the FDA? The USDA? Anyone? NBT doesn't really go into the genetic details of the modification here, but the glyphosate-degrading genes have been out in crops for more than a decade now, and grass that doesn't grow very well isn't exactly the scariest trait out there. Still, grass may be better at cross-pollinating with other grasses than corn or potato.