Biotech News

Wheat Scientists have developed a gene-editing method that allows cereal crops to benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria Scientists have developed a gene-editing strategy that allows cereal crops to benefit from bacteria that pull nitrogen from thin air. The discovery has the potential to decrease farm input costs and water pollution by making wheat, corn, rice and…

Kansas farmers, like many farmers across the Great Plains and the West, have felt the harsh effects of severe drought through 2022. But in the future, they may have one more tool in the toolbox to battle drought’s effect on their wheat crops. It’s a wheat trait called HB4, and it offers drought tolerance in…

Tomatoes gene-edited to produce vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, could be a simple and sustainable innovation to address a global health problem. Researchers used gene editing to turn off a specific molecule in the plant’s genome which increased provitamin D3 in both the fruit and leaves of tomato plants. It was then converted to vitamin…

Argentina’s new genetically engineered, drought-tolerant wheat could have large environmental benefits. In October 2020, Argentina approved the world’s first genetically engineered wheat for cultivation and consumption. Production expanded dramatically in 2021, and will continue to expand in 2022, after Argentina received regulatory approval in late 2021 for exports to Brazil, a major consumer of Argentina’s…

This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. It is posted under Fair Use guidelines. Research into the gene editing of plants in the UK will become much easier with new rules brought forward by the government that will encourage field…

A cargo of soy. China aims to reduce its dependence on soy imports. Credit: Igor Strukov via Adobe Stock This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. It is posted under Fair Use guidelines. China’s status as the world’s largest importer…

It’s safe. It would help farmers deal with drought, support biodiversity, protect the environment and decrease a farms carbon footprint. It would help consumers cope with inflation and pay their food bills. So why aren’t we growing genetically modified wheat? We’re asking this question again because of the news from South America late last year…

These are the advances missed by countries that reject GM technology This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. It is posted under Fair Use guidelines. Two new papers aim to quantify the social welfare and economic costs that countries inflict…

If successful, these will be the first gene-edited strawberries to be sold commercially. More than a third of all fresh strawberries that consumers buy end up getting tossed out because they’re bruised, moldy or mushy. Now, two companies have teamed up to solve this problem. The J.R. Simplot Company and Plant Sciences Inc. plan to…

Expert advisory council says liberalising research and cultivation of gene edited crops could create export barriers to the EU. But the risk is worth it, given the EU seems likely to soften its rules too. The UK is gearing up to diverge from the EU and make it easier to research and commercially cultivate genetically…