Relevance: GS-3: Awareness in IT, Biotechnology and issues, indigenization of technology, and development of new technology.

Key Phrases: Genetically Modified Crops, Gene Editing, CRISPR-Cas9, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, Foreign Genes, Transgenic Seeds

Why in News?

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has issued guidelines easing norms for research into genetically modified (GM) crops and circumventing the challenges of using foreign genes to change crops profile.
• The document is a road map for the development and sustainable use of genome editing technologies in India, specifying the biosafety and/or environmental safety concerns, and describing the regulatory pathways to be adopted while undertaking the genome editing of plants.

Key Highlights of the Guidelines:

• The ‘Guidelines for Safety Assessment of Genome Edited Plants, 2022’ exempts researchers who use gene-editing technology to modify the genome of the plant from seeking approvals from the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).
• All requirements that researchers must adhere to develop transgenic seeds will apply to gene-edited seeds except clauses that require permission from the GEAC.
• The GEAC evaluates research into GM plants and recommends, or disapproves, their release into farmer fields.
• The final call however is taken by the Environment Minister as well as States where such plants could be cultivated. The Environment Ministry too has sanctioned this exemption.
• The GM plants that usually come for scrutiny are those that involve transgenic
  technology or introducing a gene from a different species into a plant, for instance, Bt-cotton, where a gene from a soil bacterium is used to protect a plant from pest attack.

Concerns raised by Environmentalists:

1. Alteration of Genes in Unintended Plants:
   • The worry around this method is that these genes may spread to neighbouring plants, where such effects are not intended and thus, their applications have been controversial.
   • Gene editing techniques involve altering the function of genes which can cause large and unintended consequences that can change the toxicity and allergenicity of plants.
   • Despite several kinds of transgenic crops having been researched and approved by scientific committees, none, except Bt-cotton, has made it to fields because of stringent opposition from environmental activists as well as farmer organisations.
2. Strict Regulatory Oversight needed:
   • Environmentalist groups have opposed the exception for gene-edited crops as gene editing is included in genetic engineering.
   • Therefore, there is no question of giving exemptions to particular kinds of genome edited plants from the regulatory purview.
   • Without the necessary regulatory oversight, the regulators and the public would not know about such changes.

What are GM Crops?

• Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods.
• The aim in most cases is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species.
• Examples of food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, resistance to chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to a herbicide), or improving the nutrient profile of the crop
• Examples of non-food crops include the production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as bioremediation.
• Bt cotton is the only genetically modified (GM) crop that has been approved for commercial cultivation in 2002 by the Government of India.
• Recently, Bt brinjal -- a genetically modified food crop developed by the seed company is set for large-scale field trials and seed production.

What is Genome Editing?

• Genome editing, or genome engineering, or gene editing, is a type of genetic engineering in which DNA is inserted, deleted, modified, or replaced in the genome of a living organism.
• Unlike early genetic engineering techniques that randomly insert genetic material into a host genome, genome editing targets the insertions to site specific locations.

The approach used in Genome Editing:

• A well-known one is called CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.
• Just as foreign genes can be used to add properties to plants, gene editing too can be used to make plants express properties not native to them.

Conclusion:

• Gene-editing is getting quite popular in biotechnology labs across the country which can address some fears around the use of ‘foreign genes’.
• But the technology should be used to express genes already present in a plant’s genome that are not manifest.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. The government has recently issued guidelines easing norms for research into genetically modified crops and circumventing the challenges of using foreign genes to change crops profile. Highlight the major provisions of the guidelines and the associated challenges. (250 words).