Genetic Engineering and Food Security

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology

2 Ph.D. Student of Guilan University

3 and Professor of Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, respectively

Abstract

Food security is one of the most important challenges with respect to the climate change and population growth. Investment inagricultural research in particular in the field of plant biotechnology can be considered as a powerful tool to comfront, these challenges. Historically, farmers used to harvest their best crop and save it as “seed” for planting in the next season. Plant breeders used the genetic knowledge to improve plants using different techniques. However, in spite of admirable achievements in producing more quality food in less land, traditional plant breeding techniques suffer from different limitations. Genetic engineering that can overcome the mentioned problems is considered as a complementary but more powerful tool to assist plant breeders to comfront their challenges and it is considered the fastest adopted technology in the history of agriculture. Recent advances in genetic engineering such as the advent and application of CRISPR-Cas9 and TALEN for genome editing and gene drive have revolutionized already existing revolutionary technology. These techniques can be used for the improvement of organisms without leaving any transgene inside the final product and hence are required less stringent regulatory procedures in different countries. “Synthetic Biology” provides the opportunity to design from scratch metabolic pathways to produce entirely new products never existed or produce already existing products in closed rooms with new methodologies. Increasing demand and market for these new products guarantee the successful mainstream of this new technology into food and industrially used material for years to come. In this article, these technologies, their applications for attainment of food security, safety considerations and future prospects and challenges, they may be facing, are reviewed.

Keywords

References

1-     افراز، ف.، ب. قره‌یاضی، ن. خوش خلق سیما، ه. لطف الهیان، س. ع. حسینی و ا. نعمتی. 1387. ارزیابی تاثیر برنج تراریخته مقاوم به آفات طارم مولایی بر رشد، پارامترهای شیمیایی خون و سلامت جوجه های گوشتی تجارتی. فصل‌نامه ایمنی زیستی         16-9:(2)1.
2-     جوان، ی. 1389. پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد مهندسی کشاورزی گرایش بیوتکنولوژی -تأثیر کشت برنج طارم مولایی تراریخته مقاوم به آفات بر میکروفلور خاک- دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد علوم تحقیقات تهران.
3. Abbott, A. 2016. GM-crop papers spark probe. Nature 529: 268–269, doi: 10. 1038/nature. 2016.19183
4. Altpeter, F., N.M. Springer, L.E. Bartley, A.E. Blechl, T.P. Brutnell, V. Citovsky and et al. 2016. Advancing crop transformation in the era of genome editing. The Plant Cell 28(7): 1510-1520.
5. Anonymous. 2010. A Decade of EU-Funded GMO Research 2001-2010. European Commission, Brussels.
6. Anonymous. 2010. Ec report on "a decade of eu-funded gmo research" describes "tailored" bioenergy crop research project. Retriverd from http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=7082.
7. Baum, J.A., T. Bogaert, W. Clinton, G.R. Heck, P. Feldmann, O. Ilagan and et al. 2007. Control of coleopteran insect pests through RNA interference. Nature Biotechnol. 25(11):1322.
8. Blancke S, F.V. Breusegem, G.D. Jaeger, J. Braeckman and M.V. Montagu. 2015. Fatal attraction: the intuitive appeal of GMO opposition. Trends Plant Sci. 20(4):414-418.
9. Brooks, G. and P. Barfoot. 2016. Environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) crop use 1996-2014: Impacts on pesticide use and carbon emissions. GM Crops Food. J. 7(2): 84-116.
10. Conko, G., D.L. Kershen, H. Miller and W.A. Parrott. 2016. A risk-based approach to the regulation of genetically engineered organisms. Nature Biotechnol. 34(5):493-503.
11. De Maagd, R.A., D. Bosch and W. Stiekema. 1999. Bacillus thuringiensis toxin-mediated insect resistance in plants. Trends Plant Sci. 4(1):9-13.
12. DeFrancesco, L. 2013. How safe does transgenic food need to be? Nature Biotechnol. 31: 794-802.
13. Fesenko, E. and R. Edwards. 2014. Plant synthetic biology: a new platform for industrial biotechnology. J. Exper. Bot. 65(8):1927-1937.
14. James C 2016. Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2016. ISAAA Brief 52, ISBN: 978-1-892456-66-4.
15. James C 2017. Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2017. ISAAA Brief 53, ISBN: 978-1-892456-6-4.
16. Jouanin, L., Bonadé-Bottino, M., Girard, C., Morrot, G., & Giband, M. 1998. Transgenic plants for insect resistance. Plant Sci. 131(1): 1-11.
17. Key S, Ma J, Drake P. 2008. Genetically modified plants and human health. J. R. Soc. Med. 2008: 101: 290–298. DOI 10.1258/jrsm.2008.070372.
18. Klumper W, Qaim M. 2014. A Meta-Analysis of the Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops. PLOS One 9: (11) e111629.
19. Kyndt T, Quispe D, Zhai H, Jarret R, Ghislain M, Liu Q, and et al. 2015. The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 112(18): 5844-5849.
20. Nogue, F., K. Mara, C., J.M. Casacuberta. 2016. Genome engineering and plant breeding: Impact on trait discovery and development. Plant Cell Rep. 35(7): 1475-1486.
21. Nicolia, A. A. Manzo, F. Veronesi, D. Rosellini. 2013. An overview of the last 10 years of genetically engineered crop safety research. Crit. Rev. Biotechnol. 1549-7801. DOI: 10.3109/07388551.2013.823595.
22. Panchin, A.Y. and A.I. Tuzhikov. 2016. Published GMO studies find no evidence of harm when corrected for multiple comparisons. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, DOI: 10.3109/07388551.2015.1130684. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/07388551.2015.1130684.
23. Ramon, M., Y. Devos, A. Lanzoni, Y. Liu. A. Gomes, A. Gennaro and E.Waigmann. 2014. RNAi‐based GM plants: food for thought for risk assessors. Plant Biotechnol. J. 12(9): 1271-1273.
24. Seralini, G.E., E. Clair, R. Mensage, S. Gress, N. Defarge, M. Malatesta, D. Hennequin and J.S. de Vendomois. 2012. RETRACTED: Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize. Food and Chemical Toxicity. J. 50(11): 4221-4231.
25. Sisterson, M.S., R.W. Biggs, N.M. Manhardt, Y. Carrière T.J. Dennehy and B.E. Tabashnik. 2007. Effects of transgenic Bt cotton on insecticide use and abundance of two generalist predators. Entomologia Experim. Appl. 124(3): 305-311.
26. Smith, C.M. 2005. Plant resistance to artropode, molecular and conventional approachspringer, Dordrecht, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
27. Thies, J.E. and M.H. Devare. 2007. An ecological assessment of transgenic crops.  J. Development Studies 43(1): 97-129.
28. Van Eenennaam, A.L. and A.E. Young. 2014. Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations. J. Animal Sci. 92(10): 4255-4278.
Strategic Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Volume 3, Issue 2
December 2018
Pages 195-208

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics