How are GMOs different from gene-edited products?
In agricultural production, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are crops and animals which have had their genetic materials improved upon through genetic engineering techniques. Genetic engineering techniques are laboratory procedures that allow scientists to introduce genes into an organism from the same or a different species. For example, a popular GMO is Bt maize. This maize has a gene introduced into it from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, resulting in maize that is resistant to specific insect pests and diseases. However, since the basic building blocks of all living things are the same regardless of whether they are plants, animals, or micro-organisms, such gene transfer is possible and results in products that have been consumed for decades.
For example, in the USA, at least 82% of all maize grown there for feeding the population and export is Bt maize. About 88% of all cotton is Bt cotton. Other genetic engineering techniques have introduced traits like herbicide tolerance, drought resistance, virus and fungus resistance, and improved protein or vitamin content in various crops, resulting in GMO versions of those crops. Overall, at least 90% of all US maize, cotton, and soyabeans are GMOs. In South Africa, 85% of all maize, 95% of all soyabeans, and 100% of all cotton grown there are genetically modified (GMOs). GMOs are currently grown in at least 29 countries worldwide including Bangladesh, Sudan, Nigeria, Brazil, China, and India. Despite strict GM regulations in Europe, GM maize is grown in Spain and Portugal. Ghana recently approved the growing of GM cowpea (beans), which is resistant to an insect pest called Maruca, and farmers will in the next few years be able to grow it. Thus, GM technology has mainly been controversial because it can result from the introduction of genes from non–related living organisms. Those who rally against the technology question why people should be eating maize that has genes of bacteria in it, although scientific evidence says that should not be a problem.
About a decade ago, a more advanced form of genetic engineering technology called gene-editing or genome-editing was discovered. This technology allows scientists to break, insert or delete DNA strands of an organism, as a way of improving upon it to create beneficial traits. There are several versions of this technology, including one that uses CRISPR – associated proteins-based systems. This technique enables precise alterations to specific regions of the genome, in a way that you could avoid using external genes from other living organisms. This is the primary difference between GMOs and gene-edited products. GMOs usually involve the introduction of external genes, whilst gene-edited products do not always involve the introduction of external genes. But as far as agriculture is concerned, both strategies are aimed at producing better-yielding, more resilient, and climate-smart products (crops and animals).
Gene-edited products under development in Africa
The Innovative Genomics Institute in the USA is seeking to utilise CRISPR genome editing techniques to remove harmful cyanide from some cassava species. Researchers in the US and Uganda are utilising CRISPR to develop cassava with increased tolerance to Cassava Brown Streak Virus. Field trials of cassava resistant to Brown Streak Virus and Mosaic Virus produced using the gene-editing technology, are currently underway in Uganda and Kenya. To combat the spread of the Banana Streak Virus, scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) are working to create virus-resistant banana cultivars using gene-editing. It is projected to take until 2023 for the IITA in Nigeria to complete the development of bananas resistant to banana bacterial wilt, fusarium silt, and banana streak virus, using gene-editing. Corteva Agri-Science and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) are working on a gene-editing project in Kenya to develop maize varieties that are resistant to Maize Lethal Necrosis, a viral disease that causes severe crop loss.
Sorghum is a staple crop in Africa, and scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia and their African partners have produced a high-protein strain of the grain using gene-editing which is awaiting authorisation for release. Sorghum variants resistant to striga, a parasitic plant, are being developed by Kenyatta University in Kenya using gene-editing, CRISPR technique. Scientists at Penn State University in the USA have used CRISPR to breed cacao trees that are resistant to Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSV), a virus that causes widespread and debilitating damage to the chocolate tree in West Africa. The IITA in Kenya employed gene-editing to pinpoint disease-fighting and heat-resistance genes in bananas. In Ghana, a scientist at the University of Cape Coast, Samuel Acheampong is using gene-editing technology to improve sweet potatoes to develop a variety with improved vitamin A content with better yield. Scientists in the USA have developed reduced trans-fat oils and high-fibre grains through gene-editing. They have also developed hornless and heat-tolerant cattle, and fast-growing tilapia as the first gene-edited products to be consumed.
Contrasting the Product with the Process
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which came into force in 2003 governs how products from genetic engineering should be approved worldwide and in various countries. GM regulations in various countries resulting from ratification of this protocol have created a cumbersome and expensive regulatory procedure which averagely takes about 13 years to get a GMO approved. To protect gene-edited crops from having to go through such burdensome regulatory steps, scientists across Africa and throughout the world have quickly drawn the line between GM crops and gene-edited products. They insist that gene-edited products should not go through approval procedures like regular GMOs since they contain no foreign genetic material.
In the USA, the United States Department of Agriculture says gene-edited products with no foreign materials will not be regulated as regular GMOs but will rather go through regulatory procedures that non-GMO seeds go through. A lot of north and south American countries like Argentina and Canada have followed this route. Nonetheless, genome-edited crops have been categorised as GMOs by the European Union. All over the world, countries are still navigating how to approach approval of gene-edited products. Some of India’s most prominent agricultural scientists wrote to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in 2021 expressing their concern over the government’s decision to put on hold plans for the introduction of gene-edited crops.
Until now, no country in Africa has enacted its own regulations to specifically regulate gene-editing. However, conversations have begun. In 2016, the Department of Science and Technology in South Africa commissioned an expert report on the regulatory implications of new breeding techniques like gene-editing, but no action has been taken yet. Legislators in Nigeria are considering amending the Biosafety Act of 2015 to include legislation on gene-editing in agriculture, as the current law only provides a framework for permitting the release of GMOs. However, a guideline was published in 2020 as an interim measure, a move that the Kenyan National Biosafety Authority replicated in 2022. It looks like in most African countries including Ghana, ongoing gene-editing works are likely to be governed by the GMO regulations that currently exist. We however think it will make a lot of sense if gene-edited products without foreign genetic materials are regulated as non-GMOs.
Authors
Kojo Ahiakpa, Team Lead and Agribusiness Advisor, Research Desk Consulting Limited
Joseph Opoku Gakpo, Country Lead, Alliance for Science
Benjamin Karikari, Lecturer and consultant; University for Development Studies/Research Desk Consulting Limited