CRISPR and Other Gene-Editors are Getting the Green Light for Commercialization

April 7, 2018 – In the latest announcement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has concluded that a new gene-edited wheat should not be subject to the regulatory process to be approved. For those who see genetically modified foods as equivalent to Armageddon, this announcement may incite them to riot.

Called Calyxt, this new wheat has been modified for increased fibre content not by substituting a foreign gene for a native one, but rather by knocking out a gene in wheat DNA. The technology used is described as a targeted mutagenesis process. The flour produced from this wheat has three times more dietary fibre than the norm with a single serving of food made with it providing 100% of the recommended daily fibre requirement.

The developers of this new wheat don’t see their product in the same light as other genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because they are working within the constraints of the planet’s native DNA. And apparently, the USDA is in agreement. In fact, the Department has indicated in a statement issued on March 28, 2018, that it will not now or in the future regulate plants altered using genome editing. According to the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, “this approach…seeks to allow innovation when there is no risk present.” The end goal is to encourage the use of these new biotechnology tools to help farmers to “do right and feed everyone.”

The USDA has included in its non-regulatory plans the following biotechnology tools:

• Deletions – changes to a plant that is solely a genetic deletion of any size.
• Single base pair substitutions – changes to a plant using a single base pair substitution.
• Insertions from compatible plant relatives – changes to a plant that introduces nucleic acid sequences from a compatible relative that could otherwise cross with the recipient plant to produce viable progeny through traditional breeding.
• Complete Null Segregants – off-spring of genetically engineered plants that do not retain the changes made in the parent.

So where does CRISPR fit into this new non-regulatory environment?

CRISPR can edit plants to delete genes that produce unfavourable outcomes. So we are not talking about using CRISPR to create GMOs with foreign gene content, known commonly as transgenic modification. Instead, CRISPR can be the tool of choice for fast-tracking modifications to food crops that under traditional selective breeding experimentation could take many generations to accomplish. For agribusiness companies using CRISPR means new strains of plants can be produced faster and cheaper than ever before. And in a world where the human population continues to creep towards 9 plus billion by mid-century, it is no wonder that the USDA wants to do little to discourage the use of this biotechnology.

Related articles across the web

• USDA confirms it won’t regulate CRISPR gene-edited plants like it does GMOs