“Genome-Edited Crops for Improved Food Security of Smallholder Farmers”, 2022-04-07 ():
Widespread enthusiasm about potential contributions of genome-edited crops to address climate change, food security, nutrition and health, environmental sustainability and diversification of agriculture is dampened by concerns about the associated risks.
Analysis of the top 7 risks of genome-edited crops finds that the scientific risks are comparable to those of accepted, past and current breeding methods, but failure to address regulatory, legal and trade framework, and the granting of social license, squanders the potential benefits.
…Here we focus on site-directed nuclease type 1 and 2 (SDN1 and SDN2)11,15-edited varieties. SDN1 produces a double-stranded DNA break that is repaired via nonhomologous end joining, which randomly deletes or adds nucleotides, often causing a frameshift mutation. In SDN2, the double-stranded break is repaired by homologous recombination, which uses a synthetic DNA template to add, delete or replace specific nucleotides. By contrast, SDN3 introduces a gene segment, or whole gene(s) at a specific site in the genome using homologous recombination, which could result in a transgenic product depending on the nature and origin of the introduced segment. CGIAR and its partners focus on SDN1 and SDN2 edits to address issues such as climate resilience in rice; disease resistance in banana, maize, potato, rice, wheat and yam; and nutrition improvement and consumer and environmental safety traits in cassava (Figure 1). Additional traits where CGIAR envisions using genome editing include brown streak virus resistance and haploid induction in cassava; nutritional quality and digestibility in bean; Striga resistance in sorghum; low phytate and high provitamin A in maize; reduced acrylamide, phytate and polyphenol oxidase in wheat; reduced aflatoxin in groundnut; delayed flour rancidity in pearl millet; reduced glycaemic index and apomixis in rice; and heat tolerance and apomixis in potato.
See Also:
“Genetics-based methods for agricultural insect pest management”
“Livestock 2.0—genome editing for fitter, healthier, and more productive farmed animals”
“The gene TaWOX5 overcomes genotype dependency in wheat genetic transformation”
“A quantitative genomics map of rice provides genetic insights and guides breeding”
“Recency negativity: Newer food crops are evaluated less favorably”
“Genome-wide selection and genetic improvement during modern maize breeding”