SimpleBio 8

Plant breeders have sought to improve crops since the dawn of agriculture. For centuries, farmers have bred their healthiest and highest-yielding plants to produce better offspring. In the 1980s, scientists also began to cut and paste DNA between species in what is known as genetic engineering.

That sparked a fierce backlash among American consumers, nearly 4 in 10 of whom believe genetically modified foods are bad for their health, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center report. Public concern about genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, has driven the growth of a multibillion-dollar non-GM food market and restricted their cultivation in Europe.

But scientists hope the public will prove less hostile to CRISPR and TALENs, the most prominent of the new gene-editing tools, because of their potential to improve taste and nutritional value.

Both work like tiny genetic scissors, snipping the double helix of a plant’s DNA at specific, pre-coded spots. When the DNA heals itself, it sometimes deletes or scrambles the gene next to the break — effectively turning that gene “off.”


Researchers are now working on adding new genetic code at the DNA break, and not merely deleting what’s already there. They are also developing methods to edit multiple genes in a single plant, a goal some scientists say they can achieve within a few years. One start-up, Inari Agriculture, is betting it can one day customize seeds to the conditions of the individual farm where they grow.

“I think that despite all the hype over gene editing, everybody but a few science fiction writers has underestimated the magnitude of the revolution they are ushering in,” said Val Giddings, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a ­Washington-based think tank. “They will transform dramatically every aspect of the relationship between humans and our environment in overwhelmingly positive ways.”

Scientists in university labs and at companies such as Calyxt are already designing plants that are more nutritious, convenient and sustainable, they say. Gene editing’s low cost has empowered smaller players to compete in a field that has long been dominated by huge agribusiness companies.

Researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Cordoba, Spain, have come out with a strain of low-gluten wheat targeted to the booming gluten-free market. Pennsylvania State University has developed mushrooms that do not brown, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has created tomatoes suited for shorter growing seasons.

Meanwhile, universities around the country are working on plants that will withstand droughts, diseases and the ravages of climate change. Such improvements, underway in crops as diverse as oranges, wine grapes and cacao, could protect these plants in the future while cutting down water and chemical use, experts say.

“We have some very real problems in agriculture right now,” said Bernice Slutsky, senior vice president of domestic and international policy at the American Seed Trade Association. “Whether it’s drought, or disease pressure, or climate change — this is a tool that helps efficiently address them.”