Sunday Evening News 438 - Week 34 - 2025
Weekly report on genetic engineering, genome editing, biotechnology and legal regulation.
August 2025-08-18 - August 2025-08-24
Meetings – Conferences / Treffen - Veranstaltungen
EFSA: Webinar on adopted opinion on protein safety assessment in genetically modified plants
Press Releases - Media / Presse- und Medienberichte
Klaus Rajewsky honored for a lifetime of achievements
https://www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/klaus-rajewsky-honored-lifetime-achievements
Bury C.: Climate change and food safety: How the EU is responding to the growing threat
Zarak, D. Tarone R.: Viewpoint: ‘Travesty of science’: Latest ‘global glyphosate study’ is a scientific mess issued by the
ethically-compromised Ramazzini Institute
Reich M.: NGT-Essentials: Alles Wichtige zu den Neuen Genomischen Techniken auf einen Blick
https://oekoprog.org/ngt-essentials/
Separating Fact from Fear: Scientific Consensus on GMO Safety!!
Only some selected press releases or media reports are listed here. The daily up-date of the press releases and
media reports are ►here: August week 34
Publications – Publikationen
Nandre R., Eom H.,Choi Y.-J., ZhangY., Hyeon-Su Ro H.-S. (2025): CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in filamentous fungi,
focusing on mushrooms and plant-pathogenic fungi Fungal Biology Reviews 54, 100446 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbr.2025.100446
CRISPR/Cas gene editing technologies enable precise modifications of the genome and have been extensively applied in genetic studies of animals and plants. Recently, these technologies have been increasingly utilized for the genetic modification of filamentous fungi. However, fungi possess unique cellular characteristics, such as multi-karyosis and heterokaryosis, which pose challenges for efficient gene editing. This review explores these barriers and discusses potential strategies to overcome them. Furthermore, we summarize commonly employed methods for intracellular delivery and expression of Cas9-sgRNA, as well as techniques for selecting transformants. The issue of non-edited nuclei persisting during the regeneration process following transformation is also addressed, along with approaches for their identification and resolution. Finally, we provide an overview of recent advancements in gene editing applications for mushroom-forming filamentous fungi and major plant-pathogenic fungi, focusing key developments in this rapidly evolving field.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1749461325000363
Moore, E., de Sousa, R.T., Felsinger, S. et al. (2025): Engineered yeast provides rare but essential pollen sterols for
honeybees. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09431-y
Honeybees are important crop pollinators, but they increasingly face pollen starvation as a result of agricultural intensification and climate change1. Frequent flowering dearth periods and high-density rearing conditions weaken colonies, which often leads to their demise2. Beekeepers provide colonies with pollen substitutes, but these feeds do not sustain brood production because they lack essential sterols found in pollen3,4. Here we describe a technological advance in honeybee nutrition with wide-reaching impacts on global food security. We first measured the quantity and proportion of sterols present in honeybee tissues. Using this information, we genetically engineered a strain of the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce a mixture of essential sterols for bees and incorporated this yeast strain into an otherwise nutritionally complete diet. Colonies exclusively fed with this diet reared brood for significantly longer than those fed diets without suitable sterols. The use of this method to incorporate sterol supplements into pollen substitutes will enable honeybee colonies to produce brood in the absence of floral pollen. Optimized diets created using this yeast strain could also reduce competition between bee species for access to natural floral resources and stem the decline in wild bee populations.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09431-y
Santos L.V., Maklouf G.R., do NascimentoC.Z.S.,Milca R. C. R., Lins M.R.C.R. et al. (2025): Unveiling the Frontiers of Synthetic
Biology in Brazil: Pioneering the National Synthetic Biology Network. ACS Omega, 10/Issue 30
In the past two decades, synthetic biology has emerged as a transformative field at the frontier of innovation, evolving from fundamental technological advancements to the commercialization of innovative products. The field is providing breakthrough innovations to address societal challenges and has become a key technology for the sustainable development of global economies. This ongoing revolution represents an opportunity for countries to mitigate the damage caused by decades of reckless use of global resources. In Brazil, a growing community is harnessing this potential, driven by a shared vision and collaborative efforts. The establishment of the Brazilian Synthetic Biology Network marks a pivotal moment in bringing together diverse research groups and fostering interdisciplinary partnerships. By leveraging the nation’s rich biodiversity, scientific expertise, and bioproduction capacity, Brazil is well-positioned to lead advancements in sustainable solutions based on synthetic biology. To realize its potential, the country needs a strong and well-connected scientific community, long-term investments in infrastructure, and the development of domestic infrastructure for supplying critical materials, reagents, and core services that support synthetic biology research and innovation. The Brazilian Synthetic Biology Network represents a significant milestone in advancing Brazil’s biotechnological capabilities. While the Brazilian potential is clear for the Network members, the scientific and regulatory scenario in Brazil is poorly known by the international community. This review discusses key components of the synthetic biology ecosystem in Brazil and highlights the limitations that hinder the country’s technological development.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.5c03077
Yue Xie et al /(2025): Engineering crop flower morphology facilitates robotization of cross-pollination and speed
breeding, Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.028
Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots offer vast opportunities in shifting toward precision agriculture to enhance crop yields, reduce costs, and promote sustainable practices. However, many crop traits obstruct the application of AI-based robots. One bottleneck is flower morphology with recessed stigmas, which hinders emasculation and pollination during hybrid breeding. We developed a crop-robot co-design strategy in tomatoes by combining genome editing with artificial-intelligence-based robots (GEAIR). We generated male-sterile lines bearing flowers with exserted stigmas, and then trained a mobile robot to automatically recognize and cross-pollinate those stigmas. GEAIR enables automated F1 hybrid breeding with efficiency comparable to manual pollination and facilitates the rapid breeding of stress-resilient and flavorful tomatoes when combined with de novo domestication under speed-breeding conditions. Multiplex gene editing in soybean recapitulated the male-sterile, exserted-stigma phenotype, potentially unlocking robotized hybrid breeding. We demonstrate the potential of GEAIR in boosting efficiency and lowering costs through automated, faster breeding of climate-resilient crops.
https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00840-2
Wang et al. (2025): A receptor antagonist counterbalances multiple systemin phytocytokines in tomato, Cell (2025),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.044
Tight regulation of immune activation is crucial for plant health. How plants control the actions of their immunostimulatory phytocytokines is largely unknown. Here, we identify antiSYS as a natural inhibitor of the tomato cytokine systemin. AntiSYS is a systemin-like peptide encoded in a gene cluster with four additional paralogs, three of which comprise newly identified agonistic systemins. AntiSYS is a potent and specific antagonist of the systemin receptor. Tomato mutants lacking antiSYS show aberrant growth and reduced reproductive fitness. These symptoms of antiSYS deficiency are not observed in plants lacking functional systemin receptors, suggesting a role of antiSYS in counterbalancing agonistic systemins. Thus, reminiscent of antagonistic interleukins controlling immune homeostasis in animals, antiSYS serves a crucial role in the regulation of phytocytokine activity in tomato plants.
Zhou, Y., Heng, Y., Chen, S. et al. (2025): Dissecting the genetic basis of agronomic traits by multi-trait GWAS and genetic
networks in maize (Zea mays L.). aBIOTECH | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42994-025-00241-4
Agronomic traits in maize (Zea mays L.) are complex and modulated by pleiotropic loci and interconnected genetic networks. However, the traditional single-trait genome-wide association study (GWAS) method often misses genetic associations among traits, overlooks pleiotropic effects, and underestimates shared regulatory mechanisms. In the current study, we employed multi-trait analysis of GWAS (MTAG) and constructed a genetic network to dissect the genetic architecture of 18 agronomic traits across a genetically diverse panel of 2,448 maize inbred lines. Incorporating MTAG significantly improved the detection of pleiotropic loci that had not been detected by single-trait GWAS. Using a genetic network, we uncovered numerous previously unrecognized connections among traits related to plant architecture, yield, and flowering time. The 49 detected hub nodes, including Zm00001d028840 and Zm00001d033859 (knotted1), influence multiple traits. Co-expression analysis of candidate genes across two developmental stages validated their distinct yet complementary roles, with Zm00001d028840 linked to early cell wall remodeling and Zm00001d033849 involved in chromatin remodeling during tasseling. Moreover, we integrated results from GWAS, MTAG, and genetic network analyses to prioritize pleiotropic loci and hub genes that regulate multiple agronomic traits. This integrative approach offers a practical framework for selecting stable, multi-trait-associated targets, thereby supporting more precise and efficient crop improvement strategies.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42994-025-00241-4
Negi, Y., Kumar, K. (2025): OsWNK9 regulates the expression of key transcription factors, phytohormonal, and
transporters genes to improve salinity stress tolerance in rice. Sci Rep 15, 30930 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-14775-6
Rice is a staple food crop, and salinity stress severely hinders its growth and yield. Understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating salinity tolerance is essential and requires the identification and functional characterization of salt-tolerant genes to develop rice varieties with increased tolerance to salinity stress. With No Lysine Kinases (WNKs) are serine/threonine kinases involved in various abiotic stress responses. Earlier, we reported that overexpression of OsWNK9 mitigates salinity stress in Arabidopsis and rice. In the present study, we used transcriptomic analysis to provide molecular insights into the tolerance mechanism exhibited by the overexpression line of OsWNK9 (Oe-OsWNK9) under salinity stress. RNA-seq analysis revealed that the Oe-OsWNK9 exhibited significant enrichment of GO terms related to biological processes, including “response to abiotic stimulus,” “regulation of protein dephosphorylation,” “protein phosphorylation,” and “cell surface receptor signaling pathways”. The cellular component GO terms were also significantly enriched with “plasmodesma,” “plasma membrane,” “extracellular space,” “apoplast,” and “cell wall” terms. The molecular function component showed enrichment of genes associated with ADP, iron, and “polysaccharide binding,” “protein dimerization activity,” and “protein phosphatase 1 binding”. The KEGG pathway enrichment plot showed enrichment of metabolic pathways, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Also, we observed differential regulation of key genes involved in phytohormonal transport and metabolism, ionic homeostasis, and signal transduction pathways. This study provides new insights into the dynamics of key differential functional genes and the associated transcriptional regulatory networks involved in salt stress tolerance in rice.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-14775-6
Holman S., Grundy P., Spafford H., Furlong M. (2025): Lethal and sublethal effects of cotton expressing single and pyramided
proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), and Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Journal of Economic Entomology, toaf089, | https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaf089
The susceptibility to proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) can vary among lepidopteran pest species. While Bollgard 3 cotton (BG3) effectively controls the primary pest Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) in Australia, its effectiveness against other pests, such as Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) and Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), is unknown. This laboratory study assessed the survival and development of H. armigera, S. litura, and S. frugiperda larvae when fed foliage from a non-transgenic cotton variety (CC) and 3 transgenic cotton varieties: Bollgard (BG1) expressing Cry1Ac, Bollgard II (BG2) expressing Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab, and Bollgard 3 (BG3) expressing Cry1Ac, Cry2Ab, and Vip3A. Pyramided Bt cotton had greater negative effects on survival and development of all species compared with CC or BG1. The proportion of H. armigera that eclosed as adults was very low when larvae fed on BG2 or BG3 compared with BG1. Eclosion rates of S. litura and S. frugiperda on BG3 were much lower compared with BG2 and BG1. This study demonstrates that BG3 has greater efficacy against a wider lepidopteran pest complex compared with previous Bt cotton products. Despite efficacy in the laboratory, S. litura larvae are reported to be surviving in BG3 fields, suggesting other factors are influencing field efficacy. As BG3 production expands across tropical northern Australia, preserving the susceptibility of S. litura and S. frugiperda to BG3 proteins is crucial. This study identifies the need for further research on field survival and resistance management strategies for secondary pest species.
https://academic.oup.com/jee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jee/toaf089/8136350
EFSA
GMO Panel (2025). Assessment of genetically modified cotton T304-40 for renewal authorisation under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003
(dossier GMFF-2024-23010). EFSA Journal, 23(7), e9580. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9580
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9580
Messéan, A., Álvarez, F., Devos, Y., Sánchez-Brunete, E., & Camargo, A. M. (2025). Assessment of the 2023 post-market
environmental monitoring report on the cultivation of genetically modified maize MON 810 in the EU. EFSA Journal, 23(8), e9613. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9613
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9613