Leading researchers at many European plant and life sciences research centres and institutes haurgently calls upon European policy makers to safeguard gene-editing technologies in plant science and agriculture.
Plant breeding started about 10,000 years ago by selecton of the best seeds from crops obtained through spontaneous genetic mutations and then using crossbreeding to
produce new crop varieties. In recent times chemicals and radiation are applied for
this mutagenesis to produce new crops.
New genome editing technologies follow the same principle, but with higher efficiency and precision as they apply only one or a few targeted mutations – the same type of changes that can also occur naturally or through traditional mutagenic approaches. No DNA from non-related species is present in the final crop which is not the case in GMO methods.
Therefore these scientists believe the modern food crops that produce the food we need will be developed using these modern gene editing techniques.
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For more information on gene editing
H2020Robox
The European Union has selected the ROBOX proposal as H2020 project. This project has 19 partners and will be coordinated by DSM Geleen. The proposal "ROBOX: Expanding the Industrial Use of Robust Oxidative Biocatalysts for the Conversion and Production of Alcohols" took first place in the selection.
