In the "gene" world, something big has happened: According to Xinhua News Agency, the US Department of Agriculture recently issued a statement that crops cultivated by new technology breeding models that do not use plant pests will not be supervised, including gene editing technology.
This means that the United States is liberalizing the marketization of “gene editing cropsâ€. For a time, the Chinese people are very "circle": Is the genetic editing crop a genetically modified crop? What should we do with this move?
"Gene editing crops" are not regulated? Purely misunderstood
"The United States does not regulate crops cultivated by genetic editing technology, which is a misunderstanding," said an American Chinese who did not want to be named, and the "Thousand Talents Program" expert said.
The expert told the Science and Technology Daily that the US Department of Agriculture is mainly supervising whether it is based on the use of harmful bacteria source conversion tools in the new technology breeding model; the US Environmental Protection Agency regulates whether or not to use insecticides such as built-in pesticides; The Food and Drug Administration will also monitor the safety of this part of the technology-produced products. Therefore, "regardless of" is the "attribute". The latter two departments will be analyzed and supervised on a case-by-case basis.
"Gene editing is not equal to traditional genetic modification." Deng Qiyun, a core breeding expert of the Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Yuan Longping, said. He said that although both technologies can introduce foreign genes and have the same operation in the early stage, there are two main differences. First of all, the gene editing has the "editing" function that the transgene does not have, that is, only the specific genes of the target organism are knocked out and site-directed mutagenesis, and the obtained products only edit the genes in the genome "in situ", no matter how "edit" , are the modification of the target organism's own genes. Secondly, the genetically edited products can completely eliminate the foreign genetic components introduced in the transgenic operation, such as T-DNA fragments and "marker genes", and the transgenic technology is difficult to achieve "no trace". .
How does "gene editing" work? Wei Jianhua, director of the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center of the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, for example: mushrooms bought at home will turn brown and even sticky for two days. This is caused by the polyphenol oxidase produced by the mushroom itself. If the gene editing technique is used, the "polyphenol oxidase gene" is knocked out, which gives the mushroom the ability to resist browning and has a longer shelf life. And this only "reconstructed" the mushroom's own genome.
Wei Jianhua emphasized that genetic modification and genetic editing are neutral technologies and cannot be simply defined as harmful or harmless. The focus of public concern is whether to introduce “foreign genesâ€, which poses potential risks. However, as long as there is a strict supervision system, it is possible to scientifically evaluate the safety of products under the existing technology level.
"Gene editing" does not require "classification management"
Liu Yaoguang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Li Jiming, an expert on the "Thousand Talents Program", believe that "gene editing" needs to be managed, but the "category management."
When genetic editing techniques are used, and crop varieties produced by traditional breeding or natural genetic variation cannot be distinguished, even if there are regulations, it is impossible to implement whether the crop is a “genetic technology cropâ€. For such cases, a similar “recording system†should be adopted for management. However, for genetically edited crops in which large fragments of foreign genes are inserted, they should be supervised by reference to previous regulations on the safety management of genetically modified organisms.
What worried Liu Yaoguang most was the above-mentioned genetically edited crops that could hardly be “monitored†by technical means. They have not been able to obtain government-approved market access and are likely to “blind†into the market. After all, genetic editing technology breeds the “wind†biosphere, which is an important reason for simplicity, efficiency and low cost. The interest is "tempting."
Deng Qiyun also expressed similar concerns. He said that for biologists, the threshold for gene editing technology is not high. In the application of gene editing technology, there is a process of using genetic separation to remove the transgenic "medium". However, if the operation of this step is not strict, there is a concern about "transgenic pollution". The research and development of gene editing technology should be strengthened, and the pre-development process should be strictly controlled and classified with GM crops.
“If all the genetically edited crops are monitored as GM crops, there is no scientific basis and the cost is huge,†said Gao Caixia, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Up to now, there is no clear policy on whether China's genetic editing products need to be regulated and how to supervise them. "If you do not formulate policies or guidelines for crop gene editing classification and segmentation management as soon as possible, you may lose a good opportunity to overtake a corner in the field of biotechnology," said Li Jiming. (Technology Daily Yu Huiyou)
Digital Safe ,Digital Safe Box,Large Digital Safe,Safe Box For Home
Ningbo Zhaomu Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. , https://www.bofonhome.com