Presentation - Produce Marketing Association

What Role Will Biotechnology Play
In the Produce Sector?
Steve Savage
May 18, 2016
In Twenty Years of Commercial “GMO Crops”
– only a few have been fruit or vegetables
Flavr
Savr
Tomato
NewLeaf
Beetle
Resistant
Potato
Virus
Resistant
Squash
Bt Sweet
Corn
Virus
Resistant
Papaya
There Were Many Barriers
Organized
Opposition
Patent
Uncertainties
Regulatory
Complexity
($, time, uncertainty,
regional differences)
Brand
Protectionism
We Also Live in the “Dark Ages 2.0”
• “information”
obscures knowledge
• Fear and
superstition increase
We are in a Period of Transition
New GM crops are
entering the market
Innate™ Potatoes
Some novel solutions are
“on the table”
Arctic® Apple
A Period of Transition: New Challenges
Abound
Asian Citrus
Psyllid
Lygus Bug
Xylella, Olives in Italy
Glassy Winged
Sharpshooter
Panama Disease, Banana
A Period of Transition
Game changing, technical advances
•  Low cost DNA sequencing
•  “Genome editing”
Important political balls in the air
CRISPr-CAS9
It’s a good time to take stock of the situation and prospects
What is a GMO Anyway?
“GMOs ain’t a thing,
GM is a verb”
It is a set of methods
or tools that can
be used in
different ways to
do different things
We’ve Been Using Various Tools to do Genetic
Modification for a Very Long Time
Selection
Tools of Genetic Modification
“Do you think all cloned
fruit should be labeled?”
One key human innovation
was finding a way to put
the brakes on genetic
modifications
Another key innovation:
mix genetics in the same
plant using rootstocks
Cloning
Triploids
Tools of Genetic Modification
•  Intentional breeding
(Mendel 1866)
•  Hybrids
•  Mutagenesis breeding
•  Wide crosses
•  Triploids
•  Polyploids
Cloning
Modern Tools For Genetic Modification
Tools
Crop Possibilities
Plant Transformation
Transgenic plants, Cisgenic
Plants
Marker Assisted Breeding
Enhanced knowledge for
“traditional breeding”
RNAi (RNA Interference)
Plants with genes turned off
Genome Editing
Plant with precise changes
to its own DNA
My “Accidental Tourist” Window on Biotech
Learning How to “Engineer” DNA (~1968-72)
Enzymes to “cut and
paste” DNA
Plasmids to move DNA
First “recombinant DNA”
1968-1972: Stanley 1972
Cohen, Herb Boyer
Caution from the beginning.
Asilomar conference 1975
1972: Paul
Berg
Taking Biotechnology To Plants – early 1980s
•  What genes to transfer?
•  Bt for insect resistance
•  Glyphosate tolerance?
Michael Adang, Fred Perlak
•  How to control the gene?
•  How to get the genes into
the crops?
Noel Keen
Luca Comai
Plant Transformation: How Is That Actually
Done?
Not like this!
How Genes Really Get Into Plants
The “Gene Gun”
Taming “Nature’s Genetic
Engineer”
•  Agrobacterium
•  “Disarmed plasmid”
Marc van Montague,
Mary Dell Chilton,
Robert Fraley
Getting From Cells to Elite Cultivars
•  Finding the modified cells
(Selectable Markers)
•  “Regeneration” – from tissue
culture to a whole plants
•  Sorting the “Events”
•  “Introgression” – breeding to
move the trait into elite seed
lines
Maud Hinghee,
Soybean
regeneration
How to Regulate Biotech Crops?
Development of the
Coordinated Framework
for the regulation of plant
biotechnology
Open, broad stakeholder participation
No new food has ever been so
scrutinized, regulated or tested
What is New? Marker Assisted Breeding/
Selection
•  Genome mapping and DNA
sequencing have become
dramatically less costly
•  Allows breeders to “see” traits
they couldn’t easily track
before
•  Makes it possible to track
complex traits involving many
genes
Bacterial spot resistance
genes for peppers
Many pepper breeding
companies have licensed for
MAB
What is New? Bacterial Leafspot Resistant
Tomatoes
•  Developed by
2Blades
•  Transgenic, with gene
from a close relative
•  Excellent
performance in Univ.
FL trials
•  Reduces need for
copper fungicides
•  No commercial
adoption to date
Tomato with BS2 Pepper Gene for
Bacterial Resistance
What is New? Non-browning Apples
•  Developed by Okanagan
Specialty Fruit
•  RNAi to turn of browning genes
•  Approved US and Canada
•  Acquired by Intrexon
•  Ramping up acreage for vertically
integrated sliced apple business
at retail
Arctic® Apple
What is New? Low Bruising, Low Acrylamide,
Disease Resistant Potatoes
•  “Cisgenic” no “foreign genes”
•  “RNAi” to turn specific genes down/off
•  Late blight resistance from wild potatoes
•  Working with 2Blades and Sainsbury Lab
(UK) on more resistance genes
•  Sustainability, reduced food waste
advantages
•  Being marketed at retail as White Russet™
- 1,500 stores, 20 states
•  Also food service demand
•  Identity preservation system
What is New? Genome Editing
Genome editing can be used to…
• 
• 
• 
Remove some DNA
Change the “spelling” in DNA
Insert other DNA at a specific site
There are several tools for “editing” DNA
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
RTDS™ system – Cibus Genetics
Zinc Finger - EXZACT™ Precision Technology – Dow
AgroSciences
Meganucleases
TALENs – 2Blades
CRISPR-Cas
Several Questions Are On The Table
How will crop technology be regulated in the
future?
•  By tools or outcomes?
Regulation?
•  Is there any hope of global
harmonization?
What will happen with regard to labeling?
Mandatory
Labeling?
Several Questions Are On The Table
Who should decide which GM tools are available to the
produce industry?
•  Dedicated anti-technology groups?
•  Brand-sensitive players?
•  Export customers?
•  Marketers?
•  Consumers?
What will happen as new biotech products reach the
market?
•  Consumer traits
•  Smaller companies
•  Different stories
•  Alternative channels
What Role Will Biotechnology Play In the
Produce Sector?
Some of the answers will continue
to be driven by forces outside of
this industry
However, it is logical for this
industry to actively engage in
this important conversation
Thank you!!
Questions/Comments?!