China’s decision to relax guidelines surrounding research into gene-edited crops will spark a flurry of research into plants that are better suited to growth in changing climates, according to scientists in Nature.
New regulations approve the use of genome editing in crop research, a remarkable series of techniques that add, remove, or alter DNA at specific locations within the genetic code of plants. Importantly, this technology produces plants that do not contain foreign DNA and are no different to plants that occur naturally. This distinguishes gene-edited (GE) plants from controversial genetically modified (GM) organisms, which usually feature the insertion of whole genes from another plant to confer advantageous characteristics.
The precise nature of GE technologies allows for scientists to ‘upgrade’ crop plants by targeting specific genes. Novel traits that could be introduced using gene-editing include resistance to drought, pests, and disease as well as better responses to fertiliser and even improved taste.
In China, the government giving the green-light for GE research has already seen researchers scramble to submit applications for the use of their crops. One crop likely to receive approval is a variety of wheat that has been in the pipeline since 2014, and is resistant to a fungal disease called powdery mildew. Powdery mildew affects crop yields around the globe, so such a development could have widespread positive impacts for future food security.
Research such as this is made possible by the new laws introduced by the Chinese government that slash the time taken to receive approval for new crop varieties. Normally, GE crops must undergo lengthy and expensive field trials to prove their safety. Now, researchers must only provide laboratory data and perform small-scale field trials to get their crop approved, which could cut wait times to one to two years.
