Cisgenesis, sometimes also called Intragenesis, is a product designation for a category of genetically engineered plants. A variety of classification schemes have been proposed , that order genetically modified organisms based on the nature of introduced genotypical changes rather than the process of genetic engineering.

Cisgenesis (from "same" and "beginning") is one term for organisms, which have been engineered using a process by which genes are artificially transferred between organisms that could otherwise be conventionally bred. Unlike in transgenesis

Transgenesis

thumb|300px|right|A diagram comparing the genetic changes achieved through conventional plant breeding, transgenesis and cisgenesisTransgenesis is the process of introducing an exogenous gene – called a transgene – into a living organism so that the organism will exhibit a new property and transmit...

, genes

Gênes

Gênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...

 are only transferred between closely related organisms. The term was first used in a PhD thesis by Jan Schaart of Wageningen University

Wageningen University

Wageningen University and Research Centre is a Dutch public university in Wageningen, The Netherlands. It consists of Wageningen University, the Van Hall-Larenstein School of Higher Professional Education, and the former agricultural research institutes of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture...

 in 2004, discussing making strawberries

Strawberry

Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...

 less susceptible to Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic fungus that affects many plant species, although its most notable hosts may be wine grapes. In viticulture, it is commonly known as botrytis bunch rot; in horticulture, it is usually called grey mould or gray mold.The fungus gives rise to two different kinds of...

.

In Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 currently this process is governed by the same laws as transgenesis but researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 feel that this should be changed and regulated in the same way as conventionally bred plants. However, other scientists, writing in Nature Biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology is an academic journal covering the science and business of biotechnology.Nature Biotechnology is a continuation of Bio/Technology , which was founded in 1983 and renamed in 1996. It is published monthly by the Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd...

 have disagreed writing, "Although lowering regulatory hurdles may increase profits in the short term, it could place the long-term potential of improved agriculture through GE in jeopardy. We would prefer to see plant molecular biologists focus their attention on developing more sophisticated methodologies such as a targeted gene knock-in strategy or genomics-assisted breeding rather than on schemes to evade regulatory mechanisms with products that are still generated by relatively crude transgenic technology."

Cisgenesis and transgenesis use artificial gene transfer, which results in far less change to an organism's genes compared to mutagenesis

Mutagenesis

Mutagenesis is a process by which the genetic information of an organism is changed in a stable manner, resulting in a mutation. It may occur spontaneously in nature, or as a result of exposure to mutagens. It can also be achieved experimentally using laboratory procedures...

 which was widely used before genetic engineering was developed.

Some people believe that cisgenesis should not face as much regulatory oversight as genetic modification through transgenesis. Cisgenesis differs from conventional breeding because it can potentially create new varieties of crops more quickly and cheaply and only selected beneficial genes are transferred and not other genes nearby on the chromosome

Chromosome

A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...

. In conventional breeding multiple backcrosses

Backcrossing

Backcrossing is a crossing of a hybrid with one of its parents or an individual genetically similar to its parent, in order to achieve offspring with a genetic identity which is closer to that of the parent...

 must be performed, each taking at least several months, to create a new cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

. Cisgenesis can achieve the same results in a fraction of the time. One application of cisgenesis is to create blight resistant potato plants by taking resistance from wild varieties and transferring them into high yielding varieties.

Related classification scheme

A related classification scheme proposed by Kaare Nielsen is:

	Source of genetic modification	Genetic variability via conventional breeding	Genetic distance
Intragenic	Within genome	Possible	Low
Famigenic	Species in the same family	Possible
Linegenic	Species in the same lineage	Impossible
Transgenic	Unrelated species	Impossible
Xenogenic	Laboratory-designed genes	Impossible	High

Diagram

.