Broadening the GMO risk assessment in the EU for genome editing technologies in agriculture

Kawall, Katharina; Cotter, Janet; Then, Christoph

doi:10.1186/s12302-020-00361-2

Cited by 59 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 221 publications

(300 reference statements)

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“…This could lead to changes in the organisms' metabolism, which could affect its toxicity and allergenicity. Such effects are highly dependent on the genomic context within which such unintended alterations occur [3,22]. Unintended effects can also be induced by applying first-generation genetic engineering techniques to insert the CRISPR/Cas components into plant cells [23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unintended effects can also be induced by applying first-generation genetic engineering techniques to insert the CRISPR/Cas components into plant cells [23][24][25][26][27][28]. A detailed and comprehensive description of unintended effects in the genome that correlate with the application of genome editing and older genetic engineering techniques is given elsewhere [3,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genome-edited Camelina sativa with a unique fatty acid content and its potential impact on ecosystems

Kawall¹

2021

Environ Sci Eur

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Abstract‘Genome editing’ is intended to accelerate modern plant breeding enabling a much faster and more efficient development of crops with improved traits such as increased yield, altered nutritional composition, as well as resistance to factors of biotic and abiotic stress. These traits are often generated by site-directed nuclease-1 (SDN-1) applications that induce small, targeted changes in the plant genomes. These intended alterations can be combined in a way to generate plants with genomes that are altered on a larger scale than it is possible with conventional breeding techniques. The power and the potential of genome editing comes from its highly effective mode of action being able to generate different allelic combinations of genes, creating, at its most efficient, homozygous gene knockouts. Additionally, multiple copies of functional genes can be targeted all at once. This is especially relevant in polyploid plants such as Camelina sativa which contain complex genomes with multiple chromosome sets. Intended alterations induced by genome editing have potential to unintentionally alter the composition of a plant and/or interfere with its metabolism, e.g., with the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites such as phytohormones or other biomolecules. This could affect diverse defense mechanisms and inter-/intra-specific communication of plants having a direct impact on associated ecosystems. This review focuses on the intended alterations in crops mediated by SDN-1 applications, the generation of novel genotypes and the ecological effects emerging from these intended alterations. Genome editing applications in C. sativa are used to exemplify these issues in a crop with a complex genome. C. sativa is mainly altered in its fatty acid biosynthesis and used as an oilseed crop to produce biofuels.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome-edited Camelina sativa with a unique fatty acid content and its potential impact on ecosystems

Kawall¹

2021

Environ Sci Eur

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“…New tools have become available for genome editing, particularly the nucleases such as Cas9, TALENs, and ZFNs (for definitions, see Kawall et al, 2020), as have new methods for applying the tools to a larger range of organisms. For example, short pieces of DNA called oligonucleotides used in a genome editing technique called oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis (ODM) were applied in yeast prior to the 1990s as they can now be applied in plants and animals in the 21st Century (Moerschell et al, 1988;Baudin et al, 1993).…”

Section: Language and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differentiated impacts of human interventions on nature

Heinemann

Paull

Walker

et al. 2021

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Biotechnology describes a range of human activities in medicine, agriculture, and environmental management. One biotechnology in particular, gene technology, continues to evolve both in capacity and potential to benefit and harm society. The purpose of this article is to offer a policy bridge from unproductive descriptions of gene technology to useful methods for identifying sources of significant biological and socioeconomic risk in complex food systems. Farmers and the public could be voluntarily and involuntarily interacting with new techniques of genome editing and gene silencing in entirely new ways, limiting the usefulness of previous gene technology histories to predict safety. What we believe is a more consistent, verifiable, and practical approach is to identify the critical control points that emerge where the scale effects of a human activity diverge between risk and safety. These critical control points are where technical experts can collaborate with publics with different expertise to identify and manage the technology. The use of technical terminology describing biochemical-level phenomena discourages publics that are not technical experts from contesting the embedded cultural perspectives and uncertainty in “scientific” concepts and prejudice the risk discourse by ignoring other issues of significance to society. From our perspective as gene technologists, we confront the use of pseudo-scale language in risk discourse and propose an escape path from clashes over whether risks that arise spontaneously (from nature) can be perfectly mimicked by gene technology to a discussion on how to best control the risks created by human activity. Scale is conceptually implicit and explicit in gene technology regulation, but there is no agreement about what scales are most useful to managing risk and social expectations. Both differentiated governance (risk-tiered) and responsible research and innovation models could accommodate the critical control points mechanism that we describe.

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“…Biosystems Design [345], although they are still categorized as GMOs in Europe, with concerns on unintended effects (e.g., off-target effects, unintended on-target effects, and other unintended consequences) [346] (see Section 5.1.5 for more details).…”

Section: Social Responsibility Of Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Biosystems Design Research Roadmap 1.0

et al. 2020

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Human life intimately depends on plants for food, biomaterials, health, energy, and a sustainable environment. Various plants have been genetically improved mostly through breeding, along with limited modification via genetic engineering, yet they are still not able to meet the ever-increasing needs, in terms of both quantity and quality, resulting from the rapid increase in world population and expected standards of living. A step change that may address these challenges would be to expand the potential of plants using biosystems design approaches. This represents a shift in plant science research from relatively simple trial-and-error approaches to innovative strategies based on predictive models of biological systems. Plant biosystems design seeks to accelerate plant genetic improvement using genome editing and genetic circuit engineering or create novel plant systems through de novo synthesis of plant genomes. From this perspective, we present a comprehensive roadmap of plant biosystems design covering theories, principles, and technical methods, along with potential applications in basic and applied plant biology research. We highlight current challenges, future opportunities, and research priorities, along with a framework for international collaboration, towards rapid advancement of this emerging interdisciplinary area of research. Finally, we discuss the importance of social responsibility in utilizing plant biosystems design and suggest strategies for improving public perception, trust, and acceptance.

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Broadening the GMO risk assessment in the EU for genome editing technologies in agriculture

Cited by 59 publications

References 221 publications

Genome-edited Camelina sativa with a unique fatty acid content and its potential impact on ecosystems

Genome-edited Camelina sativa with a unique fatty acid content and its potential impact on ecosystems

Differentiated impacts of human interventions on nature

Plant Biosystems Design Research Roadmap 1.0

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