Trends in Plant Science
OpinionTowards social acceptance of plant breeding by genome editing
Section snippets
The need for regulatory models
Genome-editing via technologies such as zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas systems (e.g., Cas9) offers the ability to perform robust genetic engineering in many species 1, 2, 3. For example, by utilizing plant genomic information, genome-editing is expected to generate many new crop varieties with traits that can satisfy the various demands for commercialization.
Genome-editing-mediated plant breeding
Conventional genetic engineering begins with extracellular DNA manipulation to construct a plasmid vector harboring the gene or specific DNA sequence to be transferred into the chosen organism. The entire plasmid or only the DNA fragment is then shot into plant cells by using particle bombardment or delivered into the cells by polyethylene glycol or Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The modified plant cells are then used to generate a GM plant. When the gene is derived from an unrelated,
Regulatory controversies
According to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a ‘living modified organism’ (the technical legal term that is close to GMO) is stipulated as ‘any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology’ (http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/text/). This definition suggests that some plants modified by genome-editing may be outside the scope of current GMO regulations because genome-editing can produce a null segregant (lines that lack
A regulatory concept for genome-editing crops
To enhance the likelihood of the future acceptance of genome-editing crops as new crop varieties that differ from conventional GMOs, we unraveled the indistinct boundaries in GMO regulations which are associated with mutants generated via NHEJ or HDR with exogenous DNA.
Some of the current genome-editing techniques are likely to cause off-target mutations other than the intended mutation (Table 1) [17]. This technical hurdle is likely to be overcome because genome-editing technology is rapidly
Response to Right to Know
Even if a genome-editing crop is approved by a regulatory authority, released into the environment for cultivation, and commercialized as a food product, another concern may emerge. Recently, the Right to Know movement against GMOs has been increasing, even in the USA. For example, the governor of Vermont signed a bill of law that will require the labeling of GM foods (http://governor.vermont.gov/newsroom-gmo-bill-signing-release). Some people will demand to know which food products are
Concluding remarks
We propose that each country or international body, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, should consider introducing regulatory standards according to line 4 in Figure 1 initially because unanticipated health and environmental risks might result from plant breeding employing genome-editing technology. We can reconsider mitigating the regulations towards line 1 when sufficient regulatory experience has been gained regarding genome-editing crops. Such a cautious approach would
Acknowledgments
We thank the reviewers for their many instructive comments on our manuscript. We also thank Dr Jun Fukuda (NITE) for informative discussions.
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