Genetic use restriction technology

Genetic use restriction technology (GURT), also known as terminator technology or suicide seeds, is designed to restrict access to "genetic materials and their associated phenotypic traits." The technology works by activating (or deactivating) specific genes using a controlled stimulus in order to cause second generation seeds to be either infertile or to not have one or more of the desired traits of the first generation plant. GURTs can be used by agricultural firms to enhance protection of their innovations in genetically modified organisms by making it impossible for farmers to reproduce the desired traits on their own. Another possible use is to prevent the escape of genes from genetically modified organisms into the surrounding environment.

Patent applications related to a biological switch mechanism emerged in the early 1990's by companies such as DuPont and Zeneca (today Syngenta). Though the original GURT technology named "Technology Protection System" or "TPS" was developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and Delta & Pine Land Company in the 1990s. The purpose of the development was to protect the intellectual property of biotechnology firms that the United States Department of Agriculture viewed as being a specifically American technological competence. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted the application and issued a patent on March 3rd, 1998, the exclusive rights of the license given to the Delta & Pine Land Company through a research agreement. Monsanto bought Delta & Pine Land Co. acquiring its patents in 2007, although the original patent has since expired. The technology, while still being developed, is not yet commercially available due to the political and scientific controversies that accompanied its development.

GURT was first reported on by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and discussed during the 8th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20–31, 2006.