The long-awaited European court decision puzzled many researchers, because the technique involves gene edits that merely disable a gene, rather than rewriting it with a specific sequence.
Scientifically, advocates see this as being similar to using a chemical or radiation to generate mutations and then screening the plants for a desired trait — which is not classed as genetic modification. But with CRISPR—Cas9, researchers can generate the mutations in specific genes, without having to screen thousands of plants for each trait they want to introduce. The ruling came as a blow, particularly because, in January, an advocate-general to the European court argued that such crops do not need the same scrutiny as conventional genetically modified crops.
And it highlights the degree to which researchers are at odds with officials on genetic modification in Europe. Scientists and supporters must keep up their efforts to advocate for cutting-edge research. Meanwhile, perhaps a better-tasting tomato could help to bring more policymakers on side.
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You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF. Close banner Close. Recent advances in genome editing technology have allowed scientists to precisely add, delete, and rearrange pieces of genetic code to imbue crops with desirable characteristics see this article. While it may sound like science fiction, large chemical companies like DuPont and Monsanto have been using this technology for over two decades on a wide variety of plants, many of which may alleviate world hunger.
In , Calgene introduced the first GM crop to be sold in the United States, the Flavr Savr tomato, which ripened slowly and had an extended shelf-life [5]. Flavr Savr tomatoes eventually disappeared from grocery stores because high production costs prevented them from becoming profitable, but lengthening the amount of time that produce stays fresh may be used to increase the food supply in underdeveloped areas. In reality, genetic engineering is a much less dramatic process that often involves pipetting clear, colorless liquids into other clear, colorless liquids.
A more direct solution to chronic hunger involves GM crops that have been engineered to increase yield, which is a measure of the amount of food that may be harvested from a given area of land. A popular strategy that scientists use to increase this metric is to insert a gene that confers resistance to commonly used weedkillers.
Farmers that adopt these herbicide-resistant crops are able to clear their fields of unwanted plants without tilling the soil, which allows them to plant higher densities of crops. Lastly, genetic engineering can generate crops that are resistant to microbial infections, such as the potato blight that triggered the Irish Potato Famine in the mid th century [6].
How these scientific ideas actually translate to the fields is often the subject of intense debate, but a recent review of almost studies has concluded that GM technology has significantly increased crop yields and farmer profits over the past 20 years. This is particularly encouraging because food shortages often take their most severe toll in underdeveloped regions. Even with these new crops, however, some areas of the world have seen their agricultural output begin to plateau [8].
Therefore, increases in yield alone will likely not be able to sustain our ever-growing populace. Figure 3: Overall Effects of Farming with GM Crops The graph above shows the average percentage differences in several important metrics that result from farmers adopting GM crops.
Overall, GM crops were associated with substantially higher yields and lower pesticide use. The slight increase in total production costs is likely attributable to the increased price of GM seeds, but it is dwarfed by the dramatic increase in farmer profits. Data obtained from Klumper and Qaim [8]. Another strategy that genetic engineers are currently pursuing is the development of drought-resistant crops. As the climate steadily warms, droughts are projected to occur more frequently and to last longer, threatening harvests worldwide.
Farmers could hedge against these potential losses by planting GM crops that can flourish in both wet and arid conditions. African farmers, in particular, may be able to use these crops to exploit previously untapped agricultural opportunities.
Just as human height and intelligence are influenced by a poorly understood interplay of many different genes and environmental factors, complex traits like drought resistance are typically determined by more than one or two pieces of genetic code.
Present-day research has not precisely identified the intricate combination of genes that allows crops to thrive in arid conditions, so these crops have likely not yet reached their full potential. Plummeting research costs, however, will likely allow genetic engineers to modify more complex traits in the years to come. The current cost of determining the sequence of your genetic code is roughly five thousand dollars, which is only 0.
Lower research costs likely will lead to an expansion of our molecular toolkit for combating hunger as we draw connections between traits and specific genes, such as those that successfully confer drought resistance to selectively bred crops. One such innovation that has already come to fruition is a new rice plant that was described just last month in the journal Nature.
This new strain contains an additional gene that transfers growth away from the roots and towards the parts of the plant that humans can actually eat. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas roughly 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide , so this rice should not aggravate the environmental problems that other GM crops are trying to solve. Other promising GM crops of the not-so-distant future include flood-resistant rice, maize that can grow in nitrogen-poor soil, and potatoes that can immunize consumers against hepatitis B infection [12].
Carrington D. The Guardian. Falk T. Biello D. Scientific American. Hunger Statistics. It appears geneticists may have found a way to isolate the plant genes responsible for undesirable traits like extra branching and flowering: the very things gardeners are pruning against, according to a new study published in Cell. Using CRISPR gene editing technology , geneticist Zachary Lippman of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and his research team found a way to identify specific genes, edit them with laser precision, and suppress their effects.
Through their experiments, the team successfully engineered plants with superior production of more desirable fruit and less branching and excessive flowers. As reported by Quartz , the scientists zeroed in on three specific genes associated with plant joints, green leaves on top of the fruit, and plant flowering, respectively. Those genes were screened in more than 4, varieties of tomatoes as the researchers watched for odd branching patterns. The genes influencing branching were isolated and engineered to be more efficient: a complicated process involving a balance between tangly branches, excess flowers, and overcrowding.
Next for the researchers is honing in on specific tomato varietals to find the best size for each type; potentially creating perfectly sized fruits for romas, beefsteaks, cherries, and many more.
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