In 1983, Advanced Genetic Sciences (AGS), a biotech company, applied for U.S. government authorization to perform field tests with the ice-minus strain of P. syringae, but environmental groups and protestors delayed the field tests for four years with legal challenges.[4] In 1987, the ice-minus strain of P. syringae became the first genetically modified organism (GMO) to be released into the environment[5] when a strawberry field in California was sprayed with the ice-minus strain of P. syringae.