Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60W HEN FEDERAL RESEARCH scien- tist Tom Fetch opened a copy of National Geographic a few months ago, he knew then what the topic of this year’s Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) annual meeting would be. “The article was about DNA, and it talked about CRISPR and gene edit- ing. We’re all aware of biotech and GMO, but this is being heralded as something cutting-edge and really dif- ferent,” said Fetch, chair of the PGDC. Taking place Feb. 27 to March 2 in Winnipeg, the PGDC devoted its annual plenary session to the issues of gene editing and climate change, which both have an impact on what members of the committee do. The PGDC advises regula- tory agencies about legislation and regulations governing grain breed- ing, cultivar production and sector development. This year, 43 cultivars in four dif- ferent crop categories were recom- mended for registration, delivering even more options for stakeholders throughout the agriculture sector and beyond. The plenary session, featuring four speakers, helped frame discus- sion around what the future might hold and how various crops could be affected. Fetch says gene editing is something that has the potential to take breeding to a whole new level and have a big impact on the PGDC. “Is it going to revolutionize what our breeders do? I’d say yes,” he said. Tweaking the Genome Focusing on new gene editing tools, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher Stacy Singer highlighted how revolutionary they really are in terms of altering plant genes, while Gene editing and climate change were major topics on the agenda at this year’s meeting of the Prairie Grain Development Committee. Marc Zienkiewicz through conventional breeding approaches. Theoretically one would think this means they should be regulated the same as conventionally bred crops, but that’s not necessarily the case.” Speaking to the regulatory angle, Canadian Food Inspection Agency plant biosafety management analyst Heather Shearer said Canada’s regula- tory system favours new gene editing technologies like CRISPR. “The question for me as a regu- lator is, ‘Is our system up to the challenge?’ I feel we do have the flex- ibility to roll with the times,” she said. “Each product is different — we don’t have a prescriptive system where we say, ‘If you use gene edit- ing you’re going to be regulated.’ It gives a lot of flexibility, but it does create uncertainty for people creating new varieties.” However, she noted that some of the most important advances in plant breeding have really just been about combining existing traits in useful ways and improving yields by bring- ing the best traits together. “You can in theory rearrange a genome to link useful traits together. That might not be regulated by [the federal government]. If all you’ve done is rearrange a genome, there’s nothing new there, and we shouldn’t be involved.” But just because something isn’t regulated, doesn’t mean there won’t be public opposition. Francis Kirigwi, secretary for the PGDC’s Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT), said technology involving the genome has received enough public opposition that it remains to be seen how open consumers will be to new breeding techniques. not creating actual GMOs in the process. “We’re talking about targeted mutations done in a highly specific manner,” she said in reference to technologies like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), which allows researchers to edit plant genes without introducing any foreign genetic material, some- thing Singer noted is a big reason behind public opposition to GM technology. “[CRISPR] yields genetic alterations indistinguishable from those obtained PGDCONTHE CUTTING-EDGE Eric Fridfinnson is chair of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oilseeds (PRCO). Francis Kirigwi is secretary for the PGDC’s Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT). 12 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2017