Abstract and poster format of research relating to project CSP105C was presented at the International Conference held in Colorado, USA, as part of the Keystone Symposium series. The conference was entitled "Plant Foods for Human Health: Manipulating Plant Metabolism to Enhaiice Nutritional Quality". The speaker list included researchers leading the field in plant metabolism and engineering, and also included speakers whose expertise were in the fields of nutrition and assessing solutions for world hunger. The key plant metabolic pathways discussed at the meeting were broad and often overlapping and included vitamin E, folate, vitamin C, iron, zinc, calcium oxalate, lipids and fatty acids, amino acids, terpenoids, sterols, carotei-toids (vitamin A), isoflavonoids and lignans, alkaloids and phytonutrients.

An important issue highlighted at the conference was the enormous potential of genetic engineering to modify plant metabolic pathways for specific downstream applications. Examples of these include nutritional applications such as altering fatty acid profiles for healthier vegetable oils which could reduce cardiac problems, a pharmaceutical application may be tlie diversion of glucosinolate pathways in poppy for controlled production of morphine or codeine, and an indtlstrial application may be the overproduction of rnonoterpenoid oils from mint species for use as fragrances. The research conducted as part of CRDC project CSP105C has multiple applications. Modifying terpenoid biosynthesis in transgenic cotton could result in plants with increased tolerance to diseases and insect feeding, reducing gossypol levels in the seeds would improve the quality of cottonseed for use as stock feed and edible oils, and overproduction of gossypol may provide a market opportunity if gossypol is proven to be a safe and effective male contraceptive. The

conference highlighted just how achievable these goals are since several other pathways have been successfully modified using genetic engineering approaches.