Sunday Evening News 426 - Week 21 - 2025
Weekly report on genetic engineering, genome editing, biotechnology and legal regulation.
May 2025-05-19 - May 2025-05-25
Meetings – Conferences / Treffen - Veranstaltungen
Reminder: Join GeneBEcon’s Four Webinars on Consumer Perceptions, Crop Innovations and the GeneBeWise
Tues 27 May, Tues 10 June
Wir CRISPRn uns durch die Apokalypse – Science Café
Donnerstag, 26.06.202, 19:00 Uhr – 21:00 Uhr , Fraunhofer Theater, Fraunhoferstr. 9, 80469 München
https://www.in-muenchen.de/events/wir-crisprn-uns-durch-die-apokalypse-science-cafe.html
Press Releases - Media / Presse- und Medienberichte
Speziell zur deutschen Politik im Umgang mit NGT-Pflanzen – Kennzeichnung und Vorsorgeprinzip. Erste Hinweise zum Abstimmungsverhalten von Deutschland auf der EU-Ebene.
Bündnis90/Die Grünen: Deutscher Bundestag Drucksache 21/221 zu dem Vorschlag für eine Verordnung des Europäischen
Parlaments und des Rates über mit bestimmten neuen genomischen Techniken gewonnene Pflanzen und die aus ihnen gewonnenen Lebens- und Futtermittel sowie zur Änderung der Verordnung (EU) 2017/625 - KOM(2023) 411 endg.; Ratsdok. 11592/2
https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/002/2100221.pdf
Deutscher Bundestag: 6. Sitzung- Stenografischer Bericht
https://dserver.bundestag.de/btp/21/21006.pdf#P.450
Informationsdienst Gentechnik: Neue Gentechnik: Koalition verhandelt weiter
https://www.keine-gentechnik.de/nachricht/koalition-ringt-um-gentechnik-position
VLOG-Newsletter 03/25: Mai
https://www.ohnegentechnik.org/vlog-newsletter-mai-2025
Lin J.: Gene-edited crops spark debate in Berlin as Brussels advances new rules
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New GMOs: freedom of choice only possible through mandatory labelling, warn 49 civil society organisations
New GMOs: freedom of choice only possible through mandatory labelling, warn 49 civil society organisations
Press Kit: Two New Genome-Modified Rice Varieties From India Bypass Current GMO Regulations and Have Their Own
Trademark
Valente C.S.: MARCOS TO OPPOSITION: 'Enough fighting, let's start serving'
https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/05/22/news/enough-fighting-lets-start-serving/2118617
Only some selected press releases or media reports are listed here. The daily up-date of the press releases and
media reports are ►here: May week 21
Publications – Publikationen
ICAE 2024 Special Issue Article: Agricultural Economicse 56,Issue 3
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15740862/2025/56/3
Naturally transgenic plants and the need to rethink regulatory triggers in biotechnology
Devanna BN, Arra Y and Madhav MS (2025): Editorial: Plant breeding innovations—CRISPR as a powerful weapon for
agricultural crops Front. Genome Ed. 7:1623540. doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2025.1623540
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genome-editing/articles/10.3389/fgeed.2025.1623540/full
Kaebnick G.E., Collins J. P., Jayaram A., Rebecca G. Tiernan R.G. et al. (2025): Deliberate extinction by genome modification:
An ethical challenge What circumstances might justify deliberate, full extinction of a species? Science 388, Issue 6748, 707-709 |
Among the ways that genome modification could be used to modify wild populations of organisms, the deliberate outcome of fully eradicating a species has received little critical attention. The lack of discussion leaves a difficult ethical question unresolved: When so much attention is given to the value of biodiversity and the conservation of species, what circumstances, paradoxically, might justify the deliberate, full extinction of a species? At least one species is now a preliminary candidate for full extinction, and cases under consideration for temporary suppression and local extinction might pose a risk of full extinction. We discuss three cases in which genome modification might be used to eradicate a species. Together, we argue, these cases suggest that deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely. The cases also highlight tensions within some widely held views about the conservation of species and the governance of genome editing.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv4045
Llavero-Pasquina M. (2025): Driving ecologically unequal exchange: A global analysis of multinational corporations’ role
in environmental conflicts. Global Environmental Change 92, 103006 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103006
Multinational corporations are being confronted by activists and scholars over their involvement in environmental conflicts and human rights violations. In response, many multinational corporations engage in human rights and ESG voluntary initiatives to mitigate their impacts and publicly bolster their contribution to society. These actions relate to disputed economic development theories which assert that foreign direct investment allows multinational companies to contribute to economic growth, human rights, and environmental well-being in so-called developing countries. To test these arguments, this article presents the largest statistical analysis on the role of multinational corporations in environmental conflicts based on data from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice including more than 3,300 environmental conflicts and 5,500 companies. The results show how multinational corporations, overwhelmingly domiciled in the Global North, are involved in environmental conflicts in the Global South. Environmental conflicts with the presence of foreign companies disproportionately involve commodities with biophysical properties ideally suited to facilitate ecologically unequal exchange and show more socioeconomic impacts and worse outcomes than cases without foreign companies. These results cast doubt on the validity of corporate sustainability assessments based entirely on company self-reported data, and call for scholars and practitioners to centre the lived realities of those resisting corporate extractivism to evaluate the socio-ecological performance of firms.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378025000433?via%3Dihub
Välisalo T, Salo S, Wessberg N, Ritala A and Säämänen A (2025): Risk evaluation of a future B2B cell factory process
producing cellularagriculture ingredients. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 9:1562464.doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1562464
Cellular agriculture can help to meet the growing global demand for proteins and other food products by producing, e.g., single-cell protein (SCP) through fermentation, simultaneously enhancing sustainability and resource efficiency. However, our path toward 2040 may involve crises related to energy, water and raw material availability, contaminated production processes, logistics or increased costs. In this study, we assessed the risks of a cell factory operating in 2040, which could face challenges such as freshwater shortages, power outages, and scarcity of chemicals and other materials. The envisioned cell factory utilises various side streams as raw materials and operates in an urban area. We employed the qualitative HAZSCAN (Hazardous Scenario Analysis) method to assess the occupational, product, and environmental safety of a fully operational hypothetical business to business (B2B) cell factory producing cellular agriculture ingredients. The analysis was conducted by a working group, including experts from VTT and industrial representatives, through five focused meetings to prepare activity and process model, systematically identify hazards, and estimate their severity and probability. Risk was then classified using a tailored risk matrix. Hazards causing production interruptions, impairment to occupational health and product safety, as well as environmental safety, were identified and their risks were assessed. Future risks may arise from resource scarcity, the quality of raw materials or logistical issues related to raw materials. Risks related to utilities stem from the availability of electricity, steam, or water. Operational risks can originate from maintenance challenges, process quality control, storage and handling of materials, insufficient instructions for operators, and potential leaks into the environment. Additionally, risks may be caused by disruptions in information transfer or vandalism. The analysis emphasised the need for comprehensive safety and risk management methods that consider both process safety and environmental impacts.
Schulman, A.H. Hartung F. , Smulders M.J.M, Jens F. Sundström, Ralf Wilhelm, Odd Arne Rognli, Karin Metzlaff (2025): Plant
genomic variation and its implications for proposed EU NGT legislation. ecoevorxiv
The European Commission proposal for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) of July 2023 specifies that NGT1 plants, which are considered equivalent to conventional plants, may differ from the recipient or parental plant by no more than 20 insertions, which cannot be longer than 20 bp; deletions can be of any size and number. Here, we examine the proposed 20/20 NGT1 limit against the background of the theoretical considerations and older data used to frame it and in light of recent data from highly contiguous long-read assemblies for reference genomes and pangenomes. We find that current genomic data indicate that natural variation in germplasm used by breeders is much greater than earlier understood and that both conventional breeding and mutagenesis can introduce genomic changes that are both more extensive in size and more frequent than the NGT Category 1 “20 insertions of maximum 20 bp” limit would allow. Furthermore, natural variation also scales with genome size and complexity, a factor not considered in the EC proposal. We conclude that the proposed cutoffs under which an NGT plant is considered equivalent to conventional plants do not align with what is observed in nature, conventional breeding, and mutagenesis. Updating the 20/20 rule to broader limits would facilitate breeding for climate resilience, farming sustainability, and nutritional security, while ensuring that NGT1 plants are equivalent to conventional ones.
https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/8930/
Asiamah JY, Mahdi SH, Tamang KR, Carson CB et al. (2025) Genome editing in grain legumes for food security. Front. Genome
Ed. 7:1572292.| doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2025.1572292
Throughout history, leguminous crops have contributed significantly to the human diet. Grain legumes have long been identified as a valuable nutritional source for humans. However, their significance extends beyond nutrition to global food security, reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers, improving soil health and increasing resilience to climate change. Recognizing their vital importance in nutrition and agricultural production, scientists have worked persistently to uncover new genetic traits in legumes, resulting in enhanced yields, improved nutritional value and increased stress tolerance. Recently, the availability of genomic resources for new traits in grain legume plants has greatly increased, laying the groundwork for the adoption of advanced breeding technologies. Gene editing has shown significant potential to improve crop outcomes. This review critically examines the latest developments in gene-editing techniques specific to major grain legumes, focusing on their application in enhancing legume crops with significant agronomic characteristics. The article also shows the potential advantages associated with these advancements. Over the years, advancements in technologies such as Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs), Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs), Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR/Cas9), and the more recent Prime Editing technique have significantly contributed to genetic enhancements. These innovations have improved nutritional and market traits, boosted farming incomes, and increased the accessibility of affordable nutritious food, particularly in developing nations. Studies show that CRISPR/Cas9 is the most extensively applied gene editing technology in grain legumes. The advent of this technology has transformed genetic modification by offering exceptional precision and efficiency. This progress has enabled the creation of grain legumes that are more resistant to climate change and enhanced with improved nutritional content. Our research highlights that soybeans have been the primary focus of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing efforts, surpassing any other grain legume, unlocking significant potential for innovation and improvement. This article presents a scientometric analysis of bibliographic data from the Web of Science using VOSviewer. It highlights global research trends, emphasizing China’s leading role in international collaborations, the prominence of soybean (Glycine max) in CRISPR/Cas9 studies, and the key researchers driving advancements in gene editing for food security.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genome-editing/articles/10.3389/fgeed.2025.1572292/full
Johns C,A., Silva A., Chizk T.M., Nelson L. et al. 2025): Genetic control of prickles in tetraploid blackberry, G3
Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 2025;, jkaf065, | https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf065
Prickle-free blackberry (Rubus subgenus Rubus) canes are strongly preferred by growers due to food and worker safety concerns and damage to fruit from mechanical injury by prickles. This project was conducted to identify the genetic region responsible for prickle-free canes derived from the recessive “Merton Thornless” source in autotetraploid blackberry using a genome-wide association study, develop diagnostic Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR markers for prickle-free canes, and determine the effects of allele dosage at the prickle-free locus on prickle density in 2 biparental populations. The prickle locus was located on chromosome Ra04 from 30.48 to 36.04 Mb in an extensive LD block, with the peak single-nucleotide polymorphism located at 33.64 Mb. Five potential candidate genes with functional annotations related to epidermal, trichome, or prickle development were identified within the prickle-free locus. One missense mutation in the third exon of the HOX3 homolog Ra_g19498, which resulted in a serine to leucine substitution at position 91 in the amino acid sequence, was discovered using whole-genome sequence data of 17 tetraploid blackberry genotypes. Three diagnostic Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR markers were developed targeting the missense mutation in Ra_g19498 and the 2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms most strongly associated with the prickle-free trait in the genome-wide association study. These 3 markers each correctly predicted the phenotype of between 96 and 97% and of 626 diverse fresh-market blackberry genotypes from multiple breeding programs, respectively. Allele dosage at the prickle-free locus had a significant impact on prickle density, with duplex prickly genotypes having significantly higher prickle density than simplex genotypes in both biparental populations studied.
https://academic.oup.com/g3journal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf065/8087818
Sun H., Liao J. and Li C. (2025): No effect of transgen St-Prrn-ACT potatoes on Arma chinensis, Potato stands as an
important vegetable crop globally. The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) : Agriculture Bioscience 6:1, 0033 | https://doi.org/10.1079/ab.2025.0033
Potato stands as an important vegetable crop globally. The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) emerges as a pervasive quarantine pest with a worldwide footprint, inflicting devastating consequences on potato crops. Arma chinensis (Fallou) is an important predator of several agricultural and forestry pests, including the CPB. Previous investigations have demonstrated the potent induction of RNAi responses in beetles through the transgenic manipulation of potato plants targeting the β-Actin (ACT) gene. By expressing double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in potato plastids, specifically targeting the β-Actin (ACT) gene of the CPB, transplastomic potato plants can trigger the beetle’s RNA interference response to kill the CPB. Our study evaluates the effect of transgenic St-Prrn-ACT potatoes on A. chinensis. Furthermore, through the tertiary nutritional relationship test of the different potato varieties-CPB-A. chinensis, we aim to understand whether the transgenic St-Prrn-ACT potato can affect the A. chinensis. To discern this, wild-type St-wt and economically significant cultivar Holland 15 were judiciously chosen as controls for comparison against the transgenic St-Prrn-ACT. Comparison of survival curves, predation volume, mean weight, as well as the activities of detoxification enzymes and protective enzymes in the different potatoes was made for CPB and A. chinensis. The study revealed an absence of statistically significant variances in survival rates, detoxification enzyme activities, and protective enzyme activities among different specimens when pitted against the A. chinensis. The study also revealed no effect of transgenic St-Prrn-ACT potatoes on A. chinensis, following exposure through the CPB.
https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/ab.2025.0033
Kartakis, S., Horrocks, K.J., Cingiz, K. et al. (2025): Migration extent and potential economic impact of the fall armyworm in
Europe. Sci Rep 15, 17405 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-02595-7
The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith, 1979), is a major agricultural pest native to the Americas that feeds on several crops, particularly maize. Since 2016, FAW has invaded more than 50 African countries, much of Southeast Asia, and Oceania, severely impacting agriculture and posing a threat to global food security. Following its recent detections in Europe in 2023, this study investigates FAW’s migratory capacity and potential direct economic impact on European grain maize production under a “no-control” scenario—areas previously unexplored in the context of Europe. We explored FAW’s potential distribution across the European continent by incorporating updated climatic data, refined parameter values, and an expanded occurrence dataset into a revised CLIMEX niche model. Our results reveal sizable potential economic impacts with the southern European Member States facing up to €546 ha− 1 grain maize gross margin annual losses, exceeding €900 million under the worst-case scenario. These member states bear the highest risk since they include areas projected to be climatically suitable for both permanent FAW establishment and transient populations during warmer months. This study provides important insights into the risks posed by FAW to Europe and can inform preparedness and decision-making to mitigate the economic consequences of its invasion.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-02595-7
Witte I.P., Lampe G.D., Eitzinger S., Miller S.M.et al. (2025): Programmable gene insertion in human cells with a laboratory-
evolved CRISPR-associated transposase, Science 388, Issue 6748 |DOI: 10.1126/science.adt5199.
INTRODUCTION: The efficient insertion of gene-sized DNA sequences at user-specified genomic sites is a long-standing goal in genome editing. Although current editing methods can correct most disease-causing mutations, the genetic diversity underlying many disorders will require the design and regulatory approval of many mutation-specific strategies—substantially limiting the number of patients who can benefit from therapeutic genome editing. Programmed genomic integration of a healthy gene copy could offer a mutation-agnostic treatment for loss-of-function genetic diseases. Additionally, targeted gene integration enables other applications, including cancer immunotherapies, transgenic cell and animal models for basic research, and metabolic engineering.
RATIONALE: CRISPR-associated transposases (CASTs) are naturally occurring bacterial systems that exploit nuclease-deficient CRISPR machinery to integrate DNA at genomic locations specified by guide RNAs. CASTs offer many attractive qualities as a genome editing tool, including facile programmability, compatibility with multi-kilobase-scale DNA cargo, and avoidance of genomic double-strand DNA breaks. Despite this promise, wild-type CASTs reported to date support minimal integration in human cells (often ≤0.1% of treated cells). We reasoned that this low efficiency may stem from naturally evolved, suboptimal transposition catalysis that mitigates mobilization-induced fitness cost to the host. To enable efficient CAST integration in human cells, we developed a phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) system that rapidly evolves CAST variants capable of fast targeted transposition and applied CAST-PACE to a prototypical Type I-F CAST system from Pseudoalteromonas.
RESULTS: We linked on-target DNA integration in Escherichia coli to the propagation of continuously mutating phage genomes encoding evolving CAST components. After hundreds of generations of continuous selection, replication, and mutation in which the resulting phage survived an overall 10322-fold dilution, we generated an evolved variant of the CAST transposase protein TnsB that mediated >200-fold improved integration activity in human cells. The evolved TnsB contains 10 activity-enhancing mutations located throughout the protein, which likely modulate several distinct interactions with other CAST components. Notably, the evolved TnsB mediated efficient integration activity in human cells without requiring codelivery of the bacterial CAST accessory protein, ClpX, which is cytotoxic. We combined this evolved TnsB with other PACE-evolved and rationally engineered CAST components to yield evoCAST, a system optimized for human-cell integration activity. EvoCAST achieved 10 to 30% integration efficiencies across 14 genomic targets in human cells, representing a 420-fold average improvement over wild-type CAST. EvoCAST supported large DNA cargoes >10 kb and mediated the integration of several therapeutic payloads at disease-relevant genomic sites, including safe harbor loci, sites for cancer immunotherapy engineering, and genes implicated in loss-of-function genetic diseases. EvoCAST also performed targeted integration in multiple human cell types, including primary human fibroblasts, and exhibited high product purity, with no detected insertions and deletions (indels), predominantly unidirectional cargo insertion, single–base pair precision of integration, and low levels of off-target integration.
CONCLUSION: This work establishes CAST as a powerful platform technology for efficient, RNA-guided gene integration in human cells. The advantages of evoCAST—including its simple programmability, single-step integration mechanism, and avoidance of genomic double-strand breaks—make it well-suited for many applications in the life sciences and therapeutics, including the capability to address genetically diverse patient populations through a single editing agent. The CAST PACE system developed in this work also provides a strategy for improving the properties of other naturally occurring CASTs toward their use for efficient human-cell genome editing.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt5199
EFSA
FEZ Panel (2025): Safety evaluation of the food enzyme pullulanase from the non-genetically modified Klebsiella pneumoniae strain
AE-PUL. EFSA Journal, 23(5), e9332. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9332
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9332