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Bản tin ngày thứ bảy 17-9-2022
Bản tin số 1
Experts Push for Organic-Biotech Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture
In the race against time to feed the growing global population, all available options to attain sustainable agriculture need to be utilized. Experts from Brazil and Argentina are proposing to use organic agriculture and genome editing in crops side by side to achieve food security.
Organic agriculture and agricultural biotechnology have always been publicly viewed at the opposite ends of the spectrum resulting in small farmers believing that the two agricultural systems are incompatible. It also caused the legal framework of organic agriculture to prevent the incorporation of genetically modified organisms into its production system despite the latter's benefits.
But with the emergence of gene editing tools like CRISPR, experts believe that biotechnology and organic agriculture can become partners to benefit farmers and consumers. They argue that mutagenesis may naturally occur or be achieved through the long process of genetic selection, and that CRISPR-Cas9 provides a fast, controlled option of inducing important properties in plant development without having to introduce a foreign gene to sustainably develop safe, improved plant varieties. They also emphasized that gene-edited foods need to be treated like traditional foods, and that these should be perceived based on a product's features instead of the process of how it was made.
CRISPR technology can help bridge organic agriculture and biotechnology. The partnership is fundamental for mitigating food insecurity, and that denying the benefits of genome editing to organic and small-holder farmers would be, according to the experts, a tragedy of immense proportions.
Read the full paper in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
Bản tin số 2
Study Defines Important Aspects in Communicating about Genome Editing in Europe
Figure: Level of trust survey stakeholders put into the different stakeholders regarding information about food production and plant genome editing (weighted meansa). Study A: How much do you trust the following groups when they communicate about genome editing in plants in your country? (−2 = not at all, −1 = not much, 0 = neutral, 1 = a little, 2 = fully). Study B: Please indicate your degree of trust in the following organisations regarding information and communication about food production in Europe. (−2 = completely distrust; −1 = distrust, 0 = neither trust nor distrust, 1 = trust, 2 = completely trust). a The weighting factor is calculated as the quotient of the target and actual distribution of the stakeholder groups. The target distribution corresponds to an equal distribution of the stakeholder groups in the sample. (x ≤ n ≤ y) represents the range of received responses from each surveyed stakeholder group for the assessed stakeholders. Reading example: In the survey, five journalists rated their trust in offices and 13 journalists rated their trust in environmental organisations. The means per SHG refer to these different case numbers.
Euroseeds and partners released the results of their study that assessed the communication activities and needs of European stakeholders involved in plant breeding innovation. The findings are published in the journal Food and Energy Security.
According to the study, a high level of trust is given by the stakeholders to representatives from academia. Across the different stakeholder groups, there is a high regard for topics such as safety, transparency, and sustainability. Furthermore, it was found that social media seem to play a subordinate role in interstakeholder communication but are vital for public outreach.
Based on the findings, the following recommendations on communicating about plant genome editing were presented:
- Include common societal goals in the narratives;
- Engage with education providers and academia;
- Reach out via professional magazines and activities;
- Frequently updated website with latest information; and
- Use social media rather to raise awareness,
Find out more in Food and Energy Security.
Bản tin khoa học
Improvement of Bacterial Blight Resistance in Two Conventionally Cultivated Rice Varieties by Editing the Noncoding Region
Changyan Li, Lei Zhou, Bian Wu, Sanhe Li, Wenjun Zha, Wei Li, Zaihui Zhou, Linfeng Yang, Lei Shi, Yongjun Lin, Aiqing You
Cells; 2022 Aug 16;11(16):2535. doi: 10.3390/cells11162535.
Abstract
xa13 is a recessive pleiotropic gene that positively regulates rice disease resistance and negatively regulates rice fertility; thus, seriously restricting its rice breeding application. In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology was used to delete the Xa13 gene promoter partial sequence, including the pathogenic bacteria-inducible expression element. Rice with the edited promoter region lost the ability for pathogen-induced gene expression without affecting background gene expression in leaves and anthers, resulting in disease resistance and normal yield. The study also screened a family of disease-resistant and normal fertile plants in which the target sequence was deleted and the exogenous transgene fragment isolated in the T1 generation (transgene-free line). Important agronomic traits of the T2 generation rice were examined. T2 generation rice with/without exogenous DNA showed no statistical differences compared to the wild type in heading stage, plant height, panicles per plant, panicle length, or seed setting rate in the field. Two important conventional rice varieties, namely Kongyu131 (KY131, Geng/japonica) and Huanghuazhan (HHZ, Xian/indica), were successfully transformed, and disease-resistant and fertile materials were obtained. Currently, these are the two important conventional rice varieties in China that can be used directly for production after improvement. Expression of the Xa13 gene in the leaves of transgenic rice (KY-PD and HHZ-PD) was not induced after pathogen infection, indicating that this method can be used universally and effectively to promote the practical application of xa13, a recessive disease-resistant pleiotropic gene, for rice bacterial blight resistance. Our study on the regulation of gene expression by editing noncoding regions of the genes provides a new idea for the development of molecular design breeding in the future.
Schematic diagram of promoter editing vector Cas9: P1+P2 and results of the editing of the Xa13 promoter mediated by Cas9: P1+P2 in two conventional rice varieties. (A) Schematic description of the wild-type Xa13 promoter. Two target sites (P1 and P2) were located in the promoter region upstream of the Xa13 CDS region. The 31 bp PXO99-inducible element was located entirely between the two target sites (P1 and P2). (B) PCR products amplified by primers PCX-F/R to detect the results of the Xa13 promoter edited with the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the T0 generation of KY131. Three transgenic rice materials (KY-PD1-3), which were completely cut between P1 and P2 by Cas9 protein, were obtained. (C) Sequences and chromatograms of the three transgenic plants (KY-PD1-3) after editing. All three transgenic plants (PD1-3) were perfectly connected and repaired after cutting at the two target sites without any base deletion or insertion. (D) PCR products amplified by primers PCX-F/R to detect the results of the Xa13 promoter edited with the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the T0 generation of HHZ. Four transgenic rice materials (HHZ-PD1-4), which were completely cut between P1 and P2 by the Cas9 protein, were obtained. (E) Sequences and chromatograms of the four transgenic plants (HHZ-PD1-4) after editing. All four transgenic plants (HHZ-PD1-4) were perfectly connected and repaired after cutting at the two target sites without any base deletion or insertion.
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