Transcript Slide 1

The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Intragenics/cisgenics and other
emerging techniques for genetic
modification
Tony Conner
New techniques in crop breeding
 Plant breeders have always been rapid
adopters of new technologies:
- Haploid plants & chromosome doubling
- Chromosome manipulation – substitution &
addition lines between species
- Chemical- and radiation- induced mutations
- Cell & tissue culture – wide hybrids, in vitro
fertilisation, protoplast fusion, spontaneous
genetic changes
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Molecular biology era
 Two key technologies:
- DNA diagnostics for marker-assisted selection
- Genetic engineering, now allows the routine
transfer of DNA from any source to crops
 Latter was a step too far for society
 Strict regulations throughout the world, usually
embedded in legislation
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Genetic modification refinements
 New breeding and genetic modification
techniques have continued to rapidly evolve
 Unclear whether these new techniques result
in GMOs as defined in legislation
 Growing interest in developing techniques that
result in plants not containing any new DNA
sequences
 In some cases the resulting changes are
similar to, or identical to, those from breeding
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Emerging issues
 Scientists are confused as to whether these
techniques are, or should be, considered as
producing GMOs
 Regulators are even more confused and are
not prepared to make decisions
 In the modern era of public consultation, how
can we expect society to debate the issues
when products are ready to go, and the
technology is still evolving?
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Intragenics/cisgenics
 Genetic engineering of plants with their own
DNA
 Assembly of vectors for gene transfer from the
target species
 Transfer genes from the genepool to elite lines
of the crop
 May or may not involve ‘chimeric’ genes
 GM crops without foreign DNA
 Issues around the use of term ‘cisgenics’
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Null segregants from transgenics
 Non-transgenic progeny segregating from plants
heterozygous for transgenes
 These non-GM plants are still legally GM in many
countries, including NZ and Europe
 Should these plants be considered transgenic?
 But what if the transgene has already been used to
increase or decrease the frequency of natural
recombination?
 Provides a valuable breeding tool to break-up or
maintain ‘linkages groups’ [co-inherited genes]
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Grafting onto root stocks
 What if non-transgenic plants are grafted onto
transgenic rootstocks?
- resistance to root diseases in fruit trees or grapes
on which non-GM scions are grown – are the
harvested fruit GM?
- but what if rootstock transgenes are designed to
translocate silencing micro-RNAs from the rootstock
to the scion to induce changes in gene expression?
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Targeted mutagenesis
 Allow the exact desired change to be induced in a
genome
 ‘Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis’ (ODGM) for
site-specific alteration
 Oligonucleotide molecules are not incorporated into
the genome
 Induce a DNA repair mechanism to make the
desired change(s)
 Will become more important with whole genome
sequence knowledge
 More precise and targeted than ‘classical’ mutagens
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Implications and issues arising
 No clear biological distinction between traditional
plant breeding approaches and GMOs
 Complete continuum of technologies from
traditional plant breeding to transgenics
- Matter of interpretation whether new techniques
fall within the scope of GMO legislation
- Definitions of GMOs differ between countries
- Enforcement difficult when resulting organisms
are indistinguishable from conventional breeding
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited