Category Archives: Crops

A brief guide to the messy Italian debate on NGTs

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There is great disorder under the heavens of new biotechnology. Judging by the Italian debate on genetic innovation in agriculture, it seems that we no longer know what to call what. We are waiting for the European Commission to present its proposal to regulate ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs) on 5 July (see the leaked draft here). But in the meantime, on 9 June, the Italian Parliament approved a regulation in favour of experimentation with ‘assisted evolution techniques’ (TEAs), which are the same thing. However, if you read the official wording (9 bis, drought decree law) this expression is missing: instead, it refers to the deliberate release into the environment for experimental purposes of ‘organisms produced by genome editing techniques through site-directed mutagenesis or by cisgenesis’.

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NGT-leaks: EC confidential proposal circulating online

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The European Commission’s proposal for an updated regulatory framework for New Genomic Techniques is due on 5 July, but someone leaked the confidential document online. In a nutshell, if the modification could also have been achieved naturally or by conventional methods, and the plant has the same risk profile as its conventional counterpart, it should be treated similarly to conventional plants and differently from GMOs (it would not require authorisation, risk assessment, traceability, labelling as GMO, but would be placed in a transparency register). For plants in which editing or cisgenesis has led to results that differ from conventional ones, the current GMO rules apply. You can read the Genetic Literacy Project’s explanation here.

Please note a couple of things environamental NGOs and organic producers should like: herbicide-tolerant NGT plants would remain subject to GMO rules, and all NGT plants would remain subject to the prohibition of use of GMOs in organic production.

Editing by grafting – a new GM-free strategy

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The practice of grafting is ancient, Cato the Censor already wrote about it over two thousand years ago. CRISPR, on the other hand, is a young invention that will empower the future. A new GM-free editing strategy could blossom from the meeting of the two. Let’s call it editing by grafting. Don’t miss the paper published in Nature Biotechnology
by Friedrich Kragler’s group and Caixia Gao’s accompanying commentary. The process is shown in this video, posted on the Plamorf consortium website.

Would you buy a CRISPR salad from these men?

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The company which developed the new vegetable (and is working on new varieties of cherries and berries) was founded by CRISPR top scientists David Liu, Keith Joung and Feng Zhang

By now it seems official. The first CRISPR plant to debut in the US market will not be a commodity for industry or intensive livestock farming, as was the case with classic GMOs in the 1990s. This time genetic innovation enters on tiptoe, with a food product designed for discerning consumers. A new type of salad, as nutrient-rich as a wild misticanza but without the bitter notes that usually relegate brassicas to foods to be eaten cooked (see here).

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Apomixis, the Holy Grail is at hand

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For a long time, it was no more than a botanical curiosity, of interest to a few scholars with a passion for taxonomy and evolution. Today, it has become the Holy Grail of agricultural genetics. We are talking about apomixis, i.e. the ability to produce viable seeds that are completely identical to the mother plant, bypassing the need for fertilisation. “Research has been going in waves, now we are on the crest,” says Emidio Albertini, an apomixis expert at the University of Perugia and the organiser of a recent workshop on the subject at the Plant & Animal Genome Conference (San Diego, 13 January 2023).

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UK embraces CRISPR crops

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© Brian Bould/

While the European Union still grapples with the political complexity of revising its regulatory framework on GMOs, post-Brexit Britain has already made up its mind. In late March, London passed the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, with the royal assent and to the delight of British researchers. For those familiar with the history of the GM controversy, this is a momentous event with strong symbolic value.

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A tale of three Gs – grape, germs and genetics

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“There is more wit in these bottles than in all the books of philosophy in the world,” wrote Louis Pasteur in 1843, looking forward to the pleasure of toasting with a friend (Charles Chappuis). The French microbiologist, whose bicentenary of birth was celebrated last year, was one of the fathers of the science of wine, as well as of germ theory. I wonder what he would write today, knowing how much progress is being made by geneticists to preserve the spirit of ancient vines while protecting them from the evils of diseases.

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CRISPR-enabled carbon capture. What’s up?

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Credit CSRWire

The Innovative Genomics Institute runs a program aiming to “supercharge plants and soils to remove carbon from the atmosphere” with the help of CRISPR and funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Iniziative. I asked Andy Murdock, communications director at IGI, three questions to update the picture. Please see his answers below.

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BananApocalypse – How concerned should we be?

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Albert Eckhout: Still-life of citrus fruit and bananas

The alarm about the impending extinction of bananas has been raised over and over in the media over the past decade. How worried do we need to be? And what are plant geneticists doing to ensure long life for this fruit loved by consumers around the world and celebrated by so many artists?

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Drought research – persist to resist

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Beating the heat is one of the goals most vigorously pursued by plant geneticists. A solution is not yet in sight, but after so many years of research, it is clear that there are several avenues worth exploring. The three most important things are testing, testing, testing.
The first consideration is that plants can adopt different strategies to survive when water is scarce. You can distinguish between drought resistance and water use efficiency, or go subtle by talking about drought avoidance, drought escape, and drought tolerance.
Another basic premise is that drought can vary in intensity and duration, so that a plant capable of tolerating moderate stress may still succumb under more extreme conditions. Further complicating matters is the fact that, to be adopted by farmers, future crops will have to prove not only more resilient but also as productive as the varieties they are intended to replace. Two strategies are being pursued at the University of Milan with the help of CRISPR.

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