About LMO
Use Areas of LMO
Agriculture and Food
The global population is constantly increasing. It was 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, and 6.2 billion
in 2000, and it is expected to rise from currently 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050 according to the recent
release of the World Population Prospects of the United Nations.
Meanwhile, available farmland is limited, and the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides has limitations in
the expansion of food production as there are safety problems related to pesticide residues, for example.
To overcome such limitations, plant breeders have developed new crop varieties using recombinant DNA
technology. Currently, genetically modified crops are commercially available worldwide, including beans,
corns, rape and cotton. In 2013, the cultivation area of genetically modified crops is as large as 175.3
million hectares in 27 countries.
Livestock and Medical Treatment
Although advances in medical technology have enabled people to conquer numerous diseases and live longer lives, there still are diseases that cannot be cured with modern medical technology.To overcome limitations of modern medical technology and cure intractable diseases, research has been actively conducted using genes or LMO, and significant efforts are made in the development of laboratory animals, such as genetically modified mice, as disease models for research on human diseases, and genetically modified animals for production of bio-organs. In addition, genetically modified animals are being developed for production of useful materials such as human protein, antibodies, hormones and medicines, and some of developed gene medicines have been successfully commercialized, which has drawn more investments to gene medicine development.
Environment, Energy and Industry
Today, the explosive increase in the global population, urbanization and industrialization have led to a rapid increase in harmful industrial waste that enters and severely contaminates the air, water and soil. Research is underway to try to remove pollutants using bioremediation which is the biodegradation of environmental contaminants. As there is a growing interest in alternative energy production technologies aimed to address issues, such as oil depletion and CO2 increase in the atmosphere, LMO-based bioenergy production and conversion technologies have drawn significant investment. Also, genetically modified microorganisms or enzymes produced from such microorganisms are used in a variety of industrial processing, such as the reduction of pollutants generated from conventional chemical processing and the mitigation of chemical reactions through more efficient catalysts.