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Technical -and risk- and regulatory assessment of NPBTs
In CHIC project, NPBTs are applied to improve industrial chicory for better inulin and production of health-related terpenes. As part of CHIC, different NPBT approaches to edit chicory genomes were employed.
We will technically evaluate these approaches and assess, whether chicory plants generated by the different techniques pose differences on a technical level such as off-target rate, efficiency, or fall under different regulations. Currently, CHIC partners generate chicory plants with different approaches. To ensure comparability between the different approaches, all partners work on the same target genes.
These approaches are compared in terms of efficiency, time-frame needed, and costs. Furthermore, different approaches may show differences in potential off-target activity. We identified potential off-target sites in the genome of the chicory, which could be edited by the used NPBTs. In a first approach, we tested whether identified potential off-target sites were cleaved in vitro. The first results let assume is a high specificity of the tested NPBT, as none of the identified off-target sequences was cleaved so far.
Furthermore, it has been screened the current literature systematically together with the ELSA-Gea project (www.dialog-gea.de) and identified thousands of studies wherein NPBTs was successfully applied in a diverse set of more than 40 plant species all over the world. Many studies let us assume, that the first products are soon touching the commercial market. In many countries, the regulation lags behind this success of NPBTs. Currently, the regulation of NPBT differs from country to country. In Member states of the European Union, due to a decision by the European Court of Justice in 2018, plants mutagenized using NPBTs are seen as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). NPBTs are not exempted from the strict European GMO regulation. However, there is an open-ended debate; whether this strict regulation is justified also for NPBTs. Outside Europe other regulations are represented: for several years now, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Israel, and Chile have a liberal position towards the use of NPBTs. Since the CHIC project began in 2018, five more countries clarified the legal position of NPBTs. Among these countries are Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia, Japan, and Australia. A number of other countries, e.g. Russia and China, are expected to join soon. Different to Europe, in these countries usually assesses NPBTs derived plants in a case-by-case dependent manner. Mostly they fall out of the scope of regulation, when certain prerequisites were met, e.g. when no foreign DNA was integrated into the edited genome. We are constantly monitoring changes in legislation and follow closely the debate in European Union and its neighbours.
More news about this project:
Assessing the intestinal permeability and anti-inflammatory potential of sesquiterpene lactones from chicory
Chicory is a main dietary source of sesquiterpene lactones (SLs), which have underexplored bioactive potential. It has recently gained popularity due to large quantities of health promoting compounds in its roots, including inulin and SLs.
XI International Agriculture Symposium – AGROSYM 2020
In the article “Metabolic Engineering in Chicory by CRISPR/Cas9 Editing”, presented at the XI International Agriculture Symposium “AGROSYM 2020”, held virtually on 8-9th of October 2020, a recently popular gene editing technique was used to alter chicory genes involved in the metabolism of bitter compounds that belong to the group of terpenoids.
What does young generation think about gene editing?
Since the CHIC project’s inception 30 months ago, several essential steps and first results continue to arise and become available for the general public. More plants are being evaluated, and a variety of methods for testing safety purposes are in development, in the belief that CHIC will bring healthy and safe products to consumers. Even at the onset of regulatory changes in genome-edited plants, the project is moving forward to achieve what the scientists set out to do.