Targeted mutation, new form of genetic engineering, could alter biotechnology debate

Herbicide-resistant canola plants are likely to be the first in a wave of biotech crops created through targeted mutation, potentially changing the face of genetic engineering. Targeted mutation is a "long-sought technique that allows tailored changes in plant genes, down to single pairs of DNA," Paul Voosen of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. The canola plants, which have been planted in test farms in North Dakota and were created by biotech firm Cibus LLC, could reshape the modified crop debate by forcing regulators to ask what "genetically engineered" actually means. (Cibus photo: James Radtke, vice president of product development, with canola plant)

As its basic level targeted mutation resembles altering one letter in one word of a newspaper, said Peter Beetham, Cibus' scientific head. Flipping that one letter, he said, "potentially changes the meaning of the whole paragraph." Random mutation, which occurs naturally, has long been used by breeders but is considered inefficient. "Targeted mutation, also known as genome editing, changes this dynamic," Voosen writes. "Over the past several years, a clutch of small biotech firms has developed tools that allow scientists to induce errors in DNA repair -- such mistakes are the source of mutation -- with great specificity."

But that method doesn't fit "a U.S. regulatory system that has been based on one technology: the somewhat random insertion of largely bacterial DNA into plants," Voosen writes. The Department of Agriculture concluded six years ago it had no authority to regulate crops generated with "mutagenesis techniques" like those employed by Cibus. The firm has faced no limits on its canola trials and "will likely be able to sell the crop without facing the USDA controls that have regulated bioengineered crops for more than a decade," Voosen writes.

Some industry officials hope the new technique will help alleviate public concern over genetically altered crops since no genes are added. Janet Cotter, a Greenpeace scientist based at the University of Exeter, told Voosen such hopes misread public sentiment. The public's objections are simple, she said: "They don't like people meddling with DNA." (Read more)