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 5212 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM In this issue of European Seed we dive once again into the exciting world of plant breed- ing innovation. In previous issues we have written about many of the new methods them- selves and contemplated the political impli- cations. Now the floor is given to the actual users of the methods. To this end, European Seed sat down with Greg Gocal, chief scien- tific officer for Cibus. EUROPEAN SEED (ES): What kind of company is Cibus, and what kind of crops are you working in? Greg Gocal (GG): Cibus recently celebrated its 15th anniversary and now has over 100 employees in Europe and North America, with the majority working out of a state-of- the-art research and development centre in San Diego, California. We use a variety of new and traditional techniques to develop improved crop varieties with characteristics that help address the challenges farmers and the industry are facing today and will face in the years to come. The possibilities are endless and our current activities include improved tolerance to diseases, herbicides and environmental stresses, improved yield and crop quality. Over the next decade or so we are aiming to develop products for all major crops. Our more advanced project crops include rapeseed, rice, potato and flax or lin- seed. We work closely with seed companies around the world and in the United States we are selling canola hybrids from our own breeding program. ES: Cibus is at the forefront of the development of new plant varieties, based on some of the so-called new breeding methods. Why did Cibus go for these techniques? GG: Our ultimate goal is to develop new plant varieties with characteristics that can make a real difference for farmers, the food and feed industry, the environment and the consumer. We use a range of non-transgenic techniques and some of these are described as new breeding methods. We are perhaps best known for a method known as oligonucleotide-di- rected mutagenesis or ODM. Although ODM is classed as a new breeding method, it actually dates back over 20 years to the mid-1990s when it was first evaluated for human health applications like sickle cell anemia. Cibus scientists were involved in plant applications of ODM from the outset and quickly recognized the potential. Of all the new methods available to breeders, ODM is perhaps the most remarkable in that it can be used to guide a plant cell to make a pre- cise change to the code of its own DNA. The change is exact — one letter (a nucleotide) in the DNA code is swapped for another speci- fiedletteratanexactlocationwithinaspecific gene in the plant genome. No foreign DNA is introduced, there are no other changes to the genome and the targeted change is indistin- guishable from changes arising naturally or induced by other forms of mutagenesis. The technique relies on a family of DNA repair enzymes that have evolved in plant cells specifically to correct any mistakes made when the plant’s DNA is copied preceding cell division. A copying mistake is apparent when the complemen- tary strands of the DNA don’t match. If the DNA repair enzymes identify a mismatch, they remove the mismatching nucleotide and replace it with a matching nucleo- tide. ODM works by simulating a specific mismatch at a precise position within a target gene. When the mismatch is identi- fied, the DNA repair enzymes correct the mismatch in exactly the same way they would correct a normal copying mistake. A NEW TOOL IN THE TOOLBOX Cibus shares its thoughts on innovation in the world of plant breeding. By: Marcel Bruins Cibus works closely with seed companies around the world. In the United States, Cibus is selling canola hybrids from its own breeding program.