July 2019 - 5

GENETICS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
" It's their choice, " she said.
On the other hand, Neal Carter of
Okanagan Specialty Fruits - which has
developed apples genetically engineered not
to enzymatically brown after being cut or
bruised - said that the apple industry itself
could stand some education about the safety
and benefits of genome editing.
Consumer issues have been significant,
especially with concerns over geneticallyedited
foods.
A 2016 report from the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine suggested a " scientific consensus "
that genetically modified foods were safe,
but a Pew Research Center survey the same
year found " a majority of Americans perceive
disagreement in the scientific community
over whether or not GM foods are safe to eat. "
A minority thought scientists had a strong
understanding of the health risks and benefits
of genetically modified foods.
Clare Murray is chief business officer of
LifeEdit, a research subsidiary of AgBiome
that is developing gene editing tools to
produce
specialty crops
with valueadded
traits - a
specific area
of interest is
the U.S. fresh
tomato market.
An " early
discovery "
company,
it will likely need partners to help with
marketing and development of the basic
science, Murray said. Educating consumers
for a more favorable market is a big
CLARE MURRAY
question, she said.
" It is absolutely the billion-dollar
question, " Murray said. " We'd all like to be
able to know how to do that and I don't
think AgBiome has the answer to that. "
State of regulation
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue did his part to boost genetics work
in a Feb. 21 presentation at the USDA's
Agricultural Outlook Forum.
Perdue highlighted modified golden rice
(genetically modified to curb Vitamin A
deficiency) as an innovation that could help
nourish the world's growing population.
" You know, our agricultural research and
education Extension infrastructure here
in the United States, I believe it's revered
and emulated around the world, " he said.
" I think it's contributed to the development
of tools, including biotech and other
progressive types of technologies dealing
with a better, more efficient production of
food and fuel and fiber around the world. "
Not all governments are as welcoming
to genetics.
The Court of Justice of the European
Union last year ruled that organisms
developed with modern genome editing
techniques were still essentially genetically
modified organisms and thus subject to
the union's strict rules created to regulate
first-generation GMOs.
Randy Shultz, a former Monsanto
genome editing platform team leader, who
was recently hired as head of Arcadia
Biosciences Research and Development,
said that not all cultures have to be
equally accepting of the technology. In
addition to gene editing capabilities,
Arcadia has an advanced proprietary,
advanced breeding platform, TILLING,
that doesn't edit genes. Food-chain
traceability could segregate non-genomeedited
foods and calm fears of " crosscontamination, "
he said.
" We really just need to focus on
innovating the whole system, being able
to go from seed to fork - if you can track
that whole pipeline or whole delivery
system, the issues can go away, " he said.
" The Europeans can have less technology,
less improved, if they want, and other
places can leverage technology much
more effectively. "
Murray, a native of England with
a doctorate degree in chemistry, said
regulation should consider science.
" I think what we need more than
anything is regulatory support based
on science, " she said. " It's really about
designing your regulatory framework
from data and science "
Van Eck noted that in Canada, the
regulatory process for biosciences seems
more straightforward: It's about the
finished products - the plants themselves
- rather than the process for obtaining
it, that is evaluated. In the U.S., the
gene editing process is considered, but
" knocking out " or silencing an existing
gene gets less scrutiny than inserting a
new gene, she said.
" These are tools, " she said. " We have so
many tools that we can use in combination
with plant breeding. I sometimes worry
that people get enamored of technology.
But it really is just a tool. Do you always
need gene editing or CRISPR? No, you
don't. But there are instances for it to be
helpful. So, I think the regulation needs to
take that into consideration as well. "
Efficient research
Carter has now navigated the U.S.
regulatory process for three engineered
apples: Arctic Grannys, Arctic Goldens
and Arctic Fujis. The company is now
hip-deep in production and distribution.
Carter said in late April it had vendor
packages executed with four distributors.
The company is building a 25,000-squarefoot
expansion onto its existing
3,000-4,000-square-foot facility for apple
sizing and slicing while holding onto
plans for a facility five times that size in
Washington state's Royal City.
But Carter said that future research is
also exciting. Future genetics research
could be more accurate and thus much
more efficient, producing research plants
with higher on-target responses, he said.
Van Eck sees a consistent improvement
to CRISPR techniques: " It keeps on getting
better and expanding. "
Murray points to the bottom line: more
research at a reduced cost.
" The kind of bigger picture here is the
more we can do to facilitate our ability to
get more crops, better crops, better yields
from the acreage we have available for
farming - however we do that is going
to be a great positive for the world as it
were, " she said. " And gene editing is a
tool in that toolbox. " VGN
In their own words
Joyce Van Eck of the Boyce
Thompson Institute at
Cornell University
Work in specialty crops
genetics: Van Eck has
been interested in crop
improvement since she was
an undergraduate student,
and has been working with
tomatoes for two decades.
Her lab has worked mostly
on potatoes and tomatoes.
Currently, her work involves
domesticating ground cherries
and goldenberries via CRISPR
to shorten their seasons and
keep them on the vine long
enough for a clean harvest.
On the future of genetics
in specialty crops: " There are
some genes in plants, they're
called susceptibility genes that
make them more susceptible to
diseases, and if you can use a
gene editing approach to knock
out that susceptibility gene and
make a plant more resistant,
I think that organic growers
might be interested in using
something like that, knowing
that disease is a big problem in
organic production. We have a
couple of organic farmers who
are very interested in trying
gene editing material that we
have, which just makes me so
happy - very thrilled to hear
that - that there seems to be an
open-mindedness about it. "
Arcadia Biosciences
Research and Development
Head Randy Shultz
Work in specialty crops
genetics: Based in Davis,
California, Arcadia Biosciences
develops agricultural products
for farmers. Products in their
development pipeline include
salinity tolerance for crops
including vegetables, water
use efficiency for tree crops,
and a dedicated business unit
focus on standardizing and
improving hemp varieties.
On the future of genetics in
specialty crops:
" Consumers are more likely
to accept new technology when
they see a direct benefit in it.
Cell phones, for example: I was
a kid when cell phones first
came out. There were actually
a lot of people that were not
going to use them because of
the potential for brain cancer
from the antenna, right? And
that was part of society's
conversation. But imagine
where we would be if we said
we're going to ban cell phones
because of this potential risk
that never really panned out.
What kind of stopped that
was, people like cell phones,
and they like using them, and
they like making their own
decision about whether the
risk is worth the reward. And
you never really saw that in
the whole GMO thing. It was
all about farmer convenience
and not necessarily about the
consumer. I think it's really
important that the technology
be used to deliver benefits
directly to the consumer. "
AgBiome Chief Business
Officer Clare Murray
Work in specialty crops
genetics: LifeEdit is a
subsidiary of AgBiome that
was formed in 2017. Located
in North Carolina's Research
Triangle, the company is
developing a number of
genetic tools for genome
editing of specialty crops.
On the future of genetics in
specialty crops:
" I think one of the really cool
things about gene editing is,
it's going to have a much faster
development time than for
instance, your regular GMO.
" It's going to be less
expensive to get them there, and
as a consequence, your crops
are not necessarily going to
have to carry the same cost of
development as a GMO crop. "
Okanagan Specialty Fruits
(OSF) President Neal Carter
Work in specialty crops
genetics: Carter, a Canadian,
founded OSF in 1996. The
group has developed a trio of
non-browning apples: Arctic
Goldens, Arctic Grannys and
Arctic Fujis - the latter of
which is set for USDA approval
in 2019.
On the future of genetics in
specialty crops:
" I think part of our
educational outreach includes
the industry itself. We hadn't
thought we would have to be
educating the industry that
much, but it turns out we
are. It's surprising how often
senior members of the apple
industry itself don't seem to
understand pollen gene flow
and bee pollination. "
VGN | JULY 2019 | 5
July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2019
