Future trends

Experts in the field indicate that it is most likely that Biotechnology will play a significant role in the 21st century (Cantor, 2000). At present, most of the commercial applications of transgenic plants have been for crops with improved agronomic benefits such as resistance to pests or herbicides. This trend will continue in developing countries since there is still the possibility of increasing the yield ceiling. However, it is likely that the focus for development in the coming years will be in multiple gene introductions to increase output traits such as increased nutritional value, vitamin content, or improved flavour components. Specifically, in the area covered by this section, the main trend pointed out by experts is in the production of nutraceuticals. This term was coined in 1979 for ‘foods, or parts of foods, that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease’ (Brower, 1998). The term includes some other definitions such as dietary supplements, functional foods and medical foods.It was estimated that by 1998, 47% of the population of Japan consumed nutraceuticals. Although there is no agreement among experts on the size of the world market for these products, it seems that the trend to a higher consumption is expected (Brower, 1998). Nutraceuticals include a broad range of products from high-tech foods, such as engineered canola with increased levels of antioxidants, to low-tech candy bars supplemented with vitamins. In plants, the number of possibilities for increased demand from consumerscan only be estimatedat present. The abundance of basic information, the improvement of plant tranformation and protein delivery methods, the development of computational biology, bioinformatics, and the trend of individualised medicine will mark the direction of this areain the future.