News emerged this week that UK-based gene editing research could help protect declining honeybee populations from the combined threat of climate change and habitat loss. It is the latest in a rapidly growing list of applications demonstrating the enormous potential of a suite of new biotechnologies to help address global food security and environmental challenges. Britain’s scientists are at the forefront of this research, and with England’s progressive Precision Breeding Act due to come into force from mid-November, the UK Government must not allow forthcoming UK-EU realignment talks to stall progress, writes Niab CEO Professor Mario Caccamo.

 

Earlier this week, the BBC reported that scientists at the University of Oxford, working in a collaboration with other international partners, have used CRISPR gene editing to develop a honeybee ‘superfood’ that could help protect bee populations against the dual threats of climate change and habitat loss. 

 

By engineering yeast to produce the exact combination of essential lipids that honeybees need to survive and reproduce, Professor Geraldine Wright and her team have created a vastly superior alternative to the supplementary food currently used by beekeepers. 

 

In trials over three months, colonies receiving the ‘superfood’ reared brood for significantly longer than those fed traditional control diets.

 

Versatile and transformative

This research is a powerful illustration of how versatile and transformative this new suite of biotechnologies can be. And a testament to the creative thinking of scientists like Professor Wright in targeting a real-world challenge in need of a solution. 

 

Because honeybee populations globally are in decline, with potentially serious implications not only for biodiversity, but also for the bees’ vital food security role as pollinators of some of our major agricultural and horticultural crops.   

 

It is a fascinating example of how gene editing can be deployed to deliver win-win outcomes for both food production and the environment. 

  

Credit is also due to the BBC and others in their coverage of the story, which focused first and foremost on the potentially beneficial outcomes of the research for honeybee populations, not on the gene editing technology used to achieve it. 

 

A turning point?

This may represent a turning point in how the press reports such developments.  We must stick to the science, because continued access to innovation, and particularly new genetic solutions, will be absolutely critical to our ability to feed more people, more sustainably, in the face of climate change and pressure on finite natural resources. These technologies will also be crucial to ensuring farmers can increase yields with lower inputs, contributing to their profitability.

 

And with precision breeding technologies like CRISPR gene editing, the world’s plant scientists are only just scratching the surface of the potential advances on offer. 

 

On a daily basis, positive news stories are emerging of gene editing research which promises to accelerate the development of higher-yielding food crops with greater climate resilience, more durable pest and disease resistance, reduced environmental impact, and with improved end-use quality and nutritional properties.

 

Precision breeding and AI

Excitingly, the combination of precision breeding with digital technologies such as AI will help scientists and plant breeders to fast-track the identification of genes underlying key economically relevant traits. With tens of thousands of genes hosted by each underlying genome, we can expect no limit on the opportunities to develop new plant varieties.

 

Just in the past few weeks, for example, we have heard how Chinese scientists have boosted the speed of new hybrid crop development by up to 400% with a combined strategy of “robot-friendly” gene editing and AI-driven robotics. Using gene editing to generate plant architectures that are more accessible for robots, the researchers have enabled the process of pollination to be automated, replacing costly and time-consuming manual methods. 

 

US researchers at the University of California, Davis, have used CRISPR gene editing to help wheat plants make their own fertiliser by releasing more of a naturally occurring chemical, called apigenin, which stimulates soil bacteria to promote the process of nitrogen fixation. In early experiments, the gene edited wheat showed a higher yield than control plants when grown in very low concentrations of nitrogen fertiliser.   

And researchers at the same university have used CRISPR-Cas gene editing to create new strains of rice with durable resistance to the devastating rice blast fungus. Planted in disease-heavy plots, the gene edited rice returned an impressive yield, producing five times more grain than control plants affected by the disease.

 

I am genuinely puzzled as to why organic farming groups and environmentalists would not welcome such developments with open arms, given their potential to improve crop productivity while reducing dependence on artificial fertiliser and pesticide inputs.   

 

Major food brands embrace gene editing

In contrast, encouragingly, some of the major global food brands are publicly embracing the potential of gene editing to help tackle worsening disease and climate threats to their business models. 

 

For example, Fresh Del Monte CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh has warned of a global banana shortage linked to climate change and the spread of fungal diseases Black Sigatoka and Fusarium, otherwise known as Tropical Race 4 (TR4). In response, he announced that field testing of TR4-resistant gene-edited banana lines is expected to begin in the coming months, describing the research as “a meaningful step toward long-term category resilience.”

 

Meanwhile confectionery giant Mars has entered into a licensing agreement with gene editing firm Pairwise to help address the pressures the cacao crop faces globally from climate variability, plant diseases and environmental stresses. 

 

1,000 peer-reviewed studies

But perhaps the most objective and compelling indicator of how these new breeding technologies are being deployed for public good and environmental benefit, across a range of different crops and traits, can be found in the global peer-reviewed literature, now totalling 1,000 individual scientific studies, recorded on the EU Sage database.   

 

This information bears witness to the fact that gene editing techniques have now been applied no fewer than 76 crop species, by researchers in 58 different countries. A truly global phenomenon!

 

As the table below demonstrates, the EU Sage database also underlines the diversity of traits involved, with the majority of applications focused on building resilience to abiotic stress (drought, salinity, temperature extremes) and biotic stress (pest and disease challenge), as well as improving crop productivity, food quality and nutrition, and reducing food waste.   

 

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The global gene editing revolution is only just beginning, and with it the opportunity to tackle many of the major threats facing the security and sustainability of our food supply. The application of AI tools to unlock novel gene combinations will only accelerate this revolution.

 

UK science at the forefront

Plant scientists in Britain’s universities and research institutes are at the forefront of this revolution. 

 

Through the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, due to take effect from 14 November this year, we have established one of the most progressive regulatory systems in the world, capable of accelerating the development and application of these technologies from lab to field. 

 

UK ministers have committed to protect this legislation in forthcoming negotiations with the EU to realign food and agriculture rules.

 

We must hold them to that promise. We must not let this opportunity slip. 

 

Professor Mario Caccamo is chief executive of UK crop science organisation NIAB. A computer scientist, he has over 20 years’ experience in life science research and big data, including specific projects to apply the latest DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics methods to advance scientific understanding of crop genetics and the interaction of agricultural crops with their environment.