b'Investing in CRISPR for Crops of the Future Has CRISPR fully delivered on its potential? What should we expect ahead? Syngentas Gusui Wu tackled these questions at World Agri-Tech in San Francisco.Madeleine BaergTHE 2024 WORLD AGRI-TECH on its potential? And what should weSyngenta scientist Mary-Dell Chilton, yet Innovation Summit in San Franciscoexpect ahead? Syngentas Gusui Wu, headthe first transgenic trait wasnt commer-in March, brought together more thanof Seeds Research at Syngenta, tackledcialized until 1996. Why such a delay? The 2,500 delegates from across the agricul- those questions in his presentation. regulatory process is certainly part of the ture value chain and from more than fourIn the past decade, depending on story, but not all of it. The major reason dozen countries. The two-day Summithow you do your calculation, somewhereit took more than 10 years is because focused on commercializing solutionsbetween $4- $6 billion were invested inthe plant transformation technique, as for climate-resilient agriculture and wasstart-ups that are applying CRISPR inrevolutionary as it was, was not in itself jam-packed with food for thought. Notagriculture. About the same amount ofsufficient to build a transgenic trait.surprisingly, one of the major topics thatdollars or higher were invested by seedIn order to successfully build a trans-came up throughout the Summit wascompanies big and small to do genegenic trade, you need plant transforma-CRISPR. editing in crops. Significant investmenttion for sure, but a number of associated Over the past 10 years, there has beenor funding has happened in the publicapplication technology were needed (as incredible progress in CRISPR thanks tosector in plant gene editing research. Aswell), Wu said.enormous private and public investment.of January, there were 53 USDA exemp- In the case of transgenic traits, the Yet, has the technology yet fully deliveredtions of gene edited traits in about 17associated technologies included trait crops, he said. gene engineering, plant expression tools, Yet, he pointed out, at-scale deliveryand trait introgression technologies to of CRISPR-influenced products hasnt yetintroduce traits into elite varieties of occurred. These may be indicators thathybrids.investor enthusiasm is waning. The delay in CRISPRs uptake and Its probably fair to say we have notcommercial application is similar.seen the kind of big impact, large-scaleCRISPR technology itself is not new commercialization of gene edited prod- breeding technology. Lets be clear about ucts in the market. And the venturethat. Its simply a tool that enables a lot of funding has plateaued in the lastbreeding technologies that can happen, few years in gene editing in ag,Wu said.he said. Already, traits can be developed with Do we still believegene editing today if those edits are CRISPR is a dis- simple. For example, Syngenta is currently ruptive, revolution- working on several key traits, including ary technology that canextended shelf-life and disease resistance bring about new breeding tech- in tomato, as well as Asian Soybean Rust nologies? Do we still believe CRISPR isresistance.a good investment opportunity that canWe see in the pipeline a lot of new make the crop of the future happen? traits that are being developed by vari-Absolutely, said Wu. The issue isous entities, public and private. There is a simply one of timing. democratization of the technology, which To understand todays reality for geneis different than (how) GM technology editing technology and use, look at thehappened in the last couple of decades, last disruptive, revolutionary technologywhich is a good thing, Wu said.in plant breeding: transgenic technol- The next stage for CRISPR may be its ogy for genetically modified traits. Thatmost exciting and an opportunity to make technology was first published in 1983 byits biggest impact on the market.SW24/ SEEDWORLD.COMLATAM'