| Bi-parental cross |
Cross between two different plants. |
| Conventional crop |
Crop that is not GMO, with all of its genes originating from sexual reproduction. |
| Emasculate |
Act of removing the anthers before pollen has been shed from a flower that is used as the female in breeding; used to reduce self-pollination when wanting to cross. |
| Exponential spread |
Very rapid spread of an invasive plant as numbers and reproductive rates accelerate. |
| Genetic engineering |
Manipulation and introduction of a transgene into a plant for a specific trait. |
| Genetic pollution |
Where genes from GMO crops may escape to conventional crops or weedy relatives. |
| GMO |
Genetically engineered organism or a plant containing a transgene. |
| Inbreeding |
Producing seed by selfing over 5–7 generations to develop pure lines. |
| Invasive plant |
Plant that is non-native to an ecosystem, and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. |
| Lag phase |
Phase during invasive plant spread that is slow due to a low number of plants being introduced. |
| Plant tissue culture |
Method that uses synthetic growth media to provide the environment for mitotic cell divisions of plants and is used to regenerate a single cell into a whole plant. |
| Ploidy |
Number of sets of homologous chromosomes in a cell. |
| Pure line |
True breeding plant produced by inbreeding so it is homozygous at most loci and produces identical plants by seed. |
| Reciprocal cross |
Matching cross where the pollinator becomes the female and female of the former cross becomes the pollen donor. |
| Rhizome |
Horizontal stem growing just below the soil surface. |
| Super weed |
Weed produced by crossing with a GMO crop; inherits the GMO trait, like herbicide tolerance. |
| Totipotent |
Ability of a single plant cell to grow into a whole plant. |
| Transformation |
Process of using the gene gun or Agrobacterium tumefaciens to introduce a transgene into a plant. |
| Transformed |
Synonym for GMO, or plant carrying a transgene. |
| Transgene |
Gene introduced into a plant from another organism, not through sexual reproduction. |
| Transgenic |
Synonym for GMO, or plant carrying a transgene. |
| Viral coat protein |
Protein that surrounds the viral genome, protecting it; essential to virus replication. |
