Where GM meets GE

[News]

Genome edited (GE) crops will be sown in a field this month for the first time in the UK as part of an experimental trial at Rothamsted Research that aims to investigate genetic engineering's efficiency in developing plants to yield more nutritious diets more sustainably.Like traditional plant breeding, genome editing can create new varieties of plants with desired traits by altering their genetic code in a way that could have happened naturally or that does not incorporate genes from another species.

Unlike traditional methods, the new technology is more accurate and can cut development times from decades to months, says Johnathan Napier, a leading pioneer in plant biotechnology at Rothamsted and an advocate for the power of genetically modified (GM) plants to deliver for the public good.

GM Camelina grown in glasshouses has yielded seeds rich in omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, or "fish oils". Credit: Rothamsted Research

Plans to start sowing two GE lines of Camelina plants follow official approval of Rothamsted's application to grow GM varieties of Camelina plants engineered to accumulate omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), a form of lipid that are also known as omega-3 fish oils, in their seeds.

While GM plants require approval before they can be grown in the field, GE varieties do not necessarily. The crucial difference is between mutations that incorporate DNA from a different species, transgenes, and those that do not. The GM Camelina incorporates new (algal) genes; the GE varieties involve only changes (losses) in the plant's DNA material.

"These two technologies promise much," says Napier, who leads Rothamsted's Omega-3 Flagship Programme. "The GM plants should yield superior levels of [LC-PUFAs] EPA and DHA; the GE plants will improve our understanding of lipid metabolism."

Approval of the GM field trial came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) following advice from its Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), which is charged with ensuring the safety of novel organisms outside the laboratory.

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