Genomic engineering, the latest revolution in plant breeding

Authors

  • Josep M. Casacuberta Centre de Recerca en Genòmica Agronòmica, CRAG (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB)
  • Fabien Nogué INRA, UMR 1318, AgroParisTech, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourin (IJPB)

Keywords:

plant breeding, crops, CRISPR/Cas9, regulation.

Abstract

Plant breeding has allowed human societies to secure the production of food of good quality throughout history. This process, which started in the Neolithic, has become increasingly technologically based and efficient in step with the advance of scientific knowledge. Mutagenesis, since the mid 20th century, and transgenic plants since the late 1990s, among other techniques, allowed a qualitative leap forward in plant breeding. Recently, new site-directed mutagenesis techniques have been developed which may have a large impact on plant breeding. In particular, CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis approaches are already allowing new alleles to be obtained with unprecedented efficiency and precision. In spite of the obvious interest of these techniques, their success in plant breeding will greatly depend on the regulation applied to the plants which are obtained and more specifically on whether or not these plants will be considered GMOs. In this article we describe the interest of these new techniques and discuss their possible regulation.

Keywords: plant breeding; crops; CRISPR/Cas9; regulation.

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