• The “New Breeding Techniques” bring together a wide range of new techniques for the genetic modification of plants, using mutagenesis which, on paper, does not allow a foreign gene to be inserted therein as for transgenic GMOs.

  • These NBTs, presented as less and less expensive and more and more precise, would make it possible, for its supporters, to develop new varieties of cultivated plants better armed in the face of global warming or diseases.

  • In the European Union, varieties obtained by NBT are currently subject to GMO regulations, which severely restricts their uses.

    Should this framework be relaxed?

    This is the subject of bitter discussions.

“NBTs are not GMOs.

"On January 15, with these comments made to the specialized agency Agrapresse, Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, threw a paving stone in the pond.

The “New Breeding Techniques” (NBT) designate new techniques of genetic “selection” of plants in order to create new varieties. In July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), followed in France by the Council of State in February 2020, decided that these NBTs should be subject to the obligations provided for by the European directive on GMOs. This strict framework provides that a genetically modified crop cannot be placed on the market or disseminated in the environment without prior authorization and after an assessment of the risks to health and the environment.

Should NBTs be taken out of this GMO regulation?

The debate resurfaces as the European Commission must give its recommendations in a report published by April 30.

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What are NBTs?

New Breeding Techniques bring together a wide range of techniques for genetic modification of plants. With a common denominator all the same: that of "mutagenesis". This approach "consists in artificially inducing a modification of the genetic information contained in the DNA of a plant", explains Jean-Luc Gallois, research director in the GAFL unit (Genetics and improvement of fruits and vegetables) of the 'Inrae *. But, importantly, this modification is done without adding to the plant genome a piece of DNA that is foreign to it ”. This is the big difference with transgenesis and the reason why we must stop seeing NBTs as GMOs, say his supporters.

These mutagenesis techniques, which have appeared and developed since the early 2000s, “are constantly evolving,” continues Jean-Luc Gallois.

While the first consisted of introducing random errors into the genome, the most recent allow targeted mutations in one gene and not elsewhere.

Of these, the most spectacular is Crispr / Cas9, which uses an enzyme (Cas 9) that acts like molecular scissors.

What could the NBT be used for?

For its supporters, NBTs would already make it possible to improve the resistance of cultivated plants to climate change, by making them, for example, less water consuming. Another issue is resistance to disease. "We know that for the pepper, the selection made over time by the farmers, keeping only their best plants, made it possible to select natural mutations in the genome of this plant making it very resistant to viruses, illustrates Jean- Luc Gallois. We were able to characterize these mutations. The idea then is to copy them from the tomato to create a resistance that it does not have today. "

In a forum in

Le Monde

, on January 27, a group of researchers gave another example with beets. Several viruses, transmitted by aphids, are currently causing a decrease in yields, to the point that France has reauthorized neonicotinoid insecticides for this crop. A strongly criticized decision.

An alternative would be to use NBTs to suppress susceptibility to viruses in cultivated beet species, in order to make them more resistant, the researchers say.

One could hope to obtain a similar result via the classic technique of genetic improvement of plants.

"That is to say by looking for natural genetic resistance to the virus in wild beets, which we would cross with cultivated beets", explain the authors of the forum.

But this process could take decades, with no guarantee of success.

Are these NBTs safe?

So much for the potential of NBTs. The biologist Yves Bertheau, director of INRA research at the National Museum of Natural History, for his part dwells on their “collateral damage”. "To make these genetic modifications, the NBTs use the same in vitro methods as those already used in transgenesis," he already points out. We make protoplasts, that is to say we remove the walls of a plant cell, we make cell cultures, we use a vector, in particular the agrobacterium, a bacterium which leaves slags in the genome. These steps induce many unintentional genetic and epigenetic ** mutations. "

Yves Bertheau also adds the "off-target" mutations, "when the introduced genetic mutation has undesirable effects on DNA sequences similar to those targeted" and the "on-target" mutations, "when the mutation has affected the DNA sequence. targeted but with unexpected effects such as chromosomal rearrangements ”.

For the biologist, the whole problem "is that we do not always look for these unwanted modifications, because this step is expensive".

Risky?

“We cannot precisely say that because, like transgenesis, we do not yet have the necessary hindsight, believes Yves Bertheau.

That is why the precautionary principle must continue to apply.

"

Already hiccups with the NBT?

In the United States, NBTs are less regulated and are already having the first applications outside the laboratory on plants and animals, indicates Suzanne Dalle, “agriculture” campaigner at Greenpeace. She then evokes the case of the start-up Recombinetics, which succeeded in giving birth to two bulls without horns in 2014. "Recombinetics then ensured the modification had been made without other unwanted effect", she indicates.

But researchers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the equivalent of ANSES in France - subsequently detected genetic sequences that should not have been present in the genome of these cattle.

"In particular a DNA fragment of bacterial origin which gives the bacteria from which it comes greater resistance to antibiotics,"

Le Monde

explained

in September 2019.

“But this example shows precisely that there was a posteriori control in this specific case, points out Jean-Luc Gallois.

"In the same way, an NBT plant which would be released in Europe will necessarily be the subject of a registration dossier including a sequencing of the genome of the modified plant to ensure that there are no unwanted mutations" , he assures, thus setting himself apart from Yves Bertheau.

Towards an exit of NBTs from European regulations on GMOs?

Several indications suggest that the study of the European Commission "should be favorable to the development of these new techniques", indicated Thursday Context, media specialized on European public policies

Several European agricultural organizations are pushing for, in any case. This is the case in France with the French Seed Union (UFS). "By establishing long and costly approval procedures, this GMO regulation further complicates the process between the discovery of an NBT technique and the outcome of concrete applications," indicates its president, Claude Tabel. So much so that little research is launched today in Europe and we are lagging behind the United States, Canada and Japan ”. For Claude Tabel, "we need NBTs in our plant selection toolbox". He also cites the opportunity to create varieties that are more resistant to climate change and diseases, “but also to reduce our use of phytosanitary products. "

A speech that Suzanne Dalle says she has already heard from the mouths of agrochemical firms to demand the deregulation of transgenic GMOs.

“In fact, the main commercial applications of these early GMOs were aimed at developing varieties resistant to herbicides and pushing the logic of intensive agriculture a little further.

"

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* Inrae is the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. 

** Modification of gene expression without changing DNA sequence

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