Wild type

Appearance of an organism which exists most frequently in nature.

Oftentimes, transgenic plants are assessed for safety by comparing them to their conventional counterparts. The conventional counterparts can be considered "wild type".

Wild type is a term commonly used in genetics that denotes the "normal" version of a mutated organism. However, whenever an organism changes, the original version may be considered the wild-type - whether it's a wild plant or the unmodified, cultivated version. The term wild type refers to outward characteristics, or phenotype.