Gene Editing: Revolutionizing Agriculture and the Future of Food

James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin. Those names probably don’t mean much to most folks. But their work with DNA and the double helix in the 1950s led to one of the most exciting and promising new breeding tools today: gene editing. To get a better understanding of gene editing and how it relates to agriculture and food, Groundwork sat down with Marc Cool, Senior Manager of Global Industry Relations at Corteva Agriscience, and posed some questions.

Marc, can you explain what gene editing is in simple terms?

Gene editing is a precise breeding tool that leverages the natural genetic variations plants already have to make beneficial changes to their DNA. In even simpler terms, it’s like changing a cookie recipe that you find to be too sweet. You might edit your cookbook and reduce the amount of sugar from 1 cup to 2/3 cup. The resulting cookie is still a cookie, it’s just less sweet. And you haven’t added anything new, you just edited what the cookie already has (sugar).

What’s the difference between gene editing and GMOs?

With gene editing, a scientist makes a tiny, targeted change within the plant’s own DNA to improve it in some way. With GMOs, they’re introducing DNA from another organism to get the benefit. That’s the key difference. Gene editing builds on traditional breeding, mimicking processes that occur in nature.

Are there any gene-edited crops available today?

For all you tomato lovers, Sanatech Seed in Japan developed a GABA-enriched tomato that can help lower blood pressure. And Pairwise in the U.S. created Conscious Greens — better tasting, nutrientdense mustard greens. Those greens have double the nutritional value of romaine lettuce but no longer have the “pungency” of traditional mustard green varieties. Pairwise also developed seedless and thornless blackberries. And much more work continues. Be on the lookout for non-browning avocados and bananas, low-gluten wheat and mildew-resistant grapes.

What does the general public think about gene-edited foods and crops?

In the Western world, the general public really hasn’t shown much interest in the breeding methods used to develop their food. Most consumers care about the direct benefits they’re seeing in a lot of these gene-edited products and what those benefits mean to them, and I don’t blame them. The technology used to produce the crop is not what matters. It’s the seedless blackberries or heart-healthy tomatoes that deserve consumers’ attention. After all, that’s ultimately why they’d purchase those products.

Is Corteva doing any work with gene editing in row crops?

Corteva has a new gene-edited corn technology we’re calling the multi-disease resistance (MDR) trait. We’ll be releasing that product commercially sometime in the next decade, and we believe it will be the first gene-edited product in row crops. The MDR trait will provide resistance to northern corn leaf blight, southern rust, gray leaf spot and anthracnose stalk rot. That protection is built right into the seed, which could reduce the need for foliar fungicide applications. So, while consumers might get excited about seedless blackberries, we think farmers will be very excited about the MDR trait.

With the capabilities of gene editing, do you think GMOs and foliar-applied crop protection will eventually fall by the wayside?

No. The way we see it, gene editing is just one breeding tool in our toolbox. When we’re faced with a challenge, we check our toolbox and choose the best tool for that job. We don’t want to give away any of our tools; we want to keep adding to the toolbox. Biotechnology is a very useful tool for specific challenges. So are crop protection products. At the heart of it, we sell characteristics in crop varieties that perform and meet certain challenges and solve certain problems, and we’ll use whatever technology we can to most efficiently and effectively do that.

What’s the current state of gene editing from a U.S. regulatory standpoint?

From a regulatory standpoint in the U.S., gene editing is considered conventional breeding. There’s a system in place called the “Am I Regulated?” process, which contains definitions of a conventional product and a biotech product. If you match the definition of a conventional product, USDA says you’re conventional. It’s all pretty straightforward. Products still need to be reviewed and approved, but the process takes less time and it’s a lot less expense compared to biotechnology.

Looking out 20 to 30 years, what do you think gene editing will do for row crops in the U.S.?

The power of gene editing is being able to understand the genetic variability that already exists in plants. In a vegetable crop like a tomato, it’s often the size, the shape, the color, the flavor. In row crops like corn and soybeans, those visually identifiable characteristics are not as important. What’s important is how the plant performs in the field or how the grain performs during processing. You can’t visually see those things. You have to understand them at a genetic level. In the past, we developed products with certain desirable characteristics and we weren’t quite sure how to further amplify and improve those characteristics. With gene editing, we can understand exactly what those specific genes do. And the more you understand the genetics, the more you can move those levers to create outcomes that are useful for farmers and society as a whole. That, to me, is the really exciting thing. We’re not there yet, but we’re on the path to being there from a science and a regulatory perspective, and we’ll keep advancing that forward.

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