Publications – Publikationen

Kardung M., Ambrogio Y, Cingiz K., Consmüller N. et al. (2026):Comparing the effects of regulating new genomic techniques

on investment decisions in the European Union European Review of Agricultural Economics, jbag004, https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/

We examine the economic impact of regulating new genomic techniques on investment decisions in the EU. Using a real options model, we compare five major regulatory options (nine including sub-options) with the status quo and analyse their effects on plant breeders’ investments. Using the current authorization process for genetically modified organisms for NGTs presents a high investment barrier for companies. The findings indicate that all alternative five options offer opportunities to reduce investment hurdles, depending on the design of the authorization process. Our model and its calibration serve as an example for further advancing the application of real options for regulatory policy analysis.

https://academic.oup.com/erae/advance-article/doi/10.1093/erae/jbag004/8699721?searchresult=1

Kardung, M., Ahado, S., Ambrogio, Y. et al. (2026): How the proposal for a new regulation for new genomic techniques

affects the European Union’s food system sustainability objectives. npj Sustain. Agric. 4, 43 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-026-00154-9

The European Commission has proposed a regulation for plants developed through new genomic techniques to enhance the sustainability of the food system. The proposal features a two-tiered pathway exempting ‘Category 1’ plants from full genetically modified organisms legislation. This approach could positively impact low-risk pesticide usage and invasive species management. The success of these techniques depends on alignment with effective farm management strategies, addressing regulatory challenges, and promoting stakeholder engagement.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44264-026-00154-9

Gaskell, G., Allansdottir, A., Hampel, J. et al. (2026): New genomic techniques for sustainable agriculture and their prospects

 in Europe. npj Sustain. Agric. 4, 45 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-026-00158-5

Could societal debates over the future of new genomic techniques (NGTs) in sustainable agriculture be hampered by entrenched positions of environmental groups and/or populist political actors, as was the fate of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Europe? Apart from a few countries in Eastern Europe, current media coverage, the interests of environmental organizations, and public opinion point to a favourable reception of NGTs in the majority of European countries. Transparency and openness are argued to be the key to public support.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44264-026-00158-5

Godinho, J., Coors, A., Guimarães, B. et al. (2026): From terminology to approval: reviewing EU regulation of low-risk

pesticides. Environ Sci Eur | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-026-01417-5

Background: The European Commission’s recent “Vision for Agriculture and Food” aims to accelerate market access to Low-Risk Pesticides, yet the introduction of these products remains slower than warranted. This study consolidates and reviews the fragmented knowledge concerning the current status of Low-Risk Pesticides in the EU market, including their applications, regulatory constraints, stakeholder expectations, and market dynamics, to support the development of a more coherent and effective risk assessment framework at the EU level.

Results: A detailed analysis of the current data requirements, regulatory documents, guidance documents, and manuals necessary to complete the risk assessment, in accordance with the framework outlined in Reg. 1107/2009, is provided. A comparison of the EU and US regulatory frameworks for pLRPs highlights potential regulatory barriers, e.g., the absence of formally adopted data requirements for several pLRP categories (botanicals, semiochemicals, and dsRNA), and substantially longer approval timelines relative to the US. We further investigated (i) how regulatory guidance can support National Authorities in interpreting the data requirements for risk assessment, and (ii) whether National Authorities have sufficient resources to assess potential Low-Risk Pesticides. To this end, an inventory of these documents and requirements was compiled and grouped by legal status and product category (microorganisms, botanicals, pheromones/semiochemicals, and dsRNA). In parallel, 19 EU Member States were surveyed regarding their expertise, resources, timelines, and fee structures. Results show wide disparities in National Authorities’ expertise, dedicated expert groups, and application fees. Respondents highlighted the importance of harmonizing waiver criteria, developing fast-track procedures, and improving guidance for specific low-risk pesticide categories as key opportunities.

Conclusions: The current EU regulatory framework for Plant Protection Products, while ensuring high safety standards, presents notable hurdles for the assessment and authorisation of Low-Risk Pesticides. To improve the efficiency-and ultimately the speed-of approving and introducing potential Low-Risk Pesticides into the EU market, while maintaining the adequacy, safety, and rigour of the risk assessment process, regulatory adjustments are required. These include the establishment of dedicated expert teams within National Authorities, harmonized guidance on waiving data requirements, and the adoption of novel assessment tools. These findings suggest concrete steps for enhancing the EU’s regulatory framework to accelerate potential Low-Risk Pesticides authorization while safeguarding health and environmental standards.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12302-026-01417-5

Brandt, B., Schwartz S.,  Schwenkert S., Krämer M. et al. (2026): Plants tolerate substantial rates of plastid mistranslation

via regulated proteostasis. PNAS 123 (22), e2537357123 | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2537357123

In bacteria, protein mistranslation can improve stress tolerance. Mitochondria and plastids evolved from bacteria and use a prokaryotic-type expression machinery to synthesize proteins. Interestingly, fungi and animal mitochondria are highly sensitive to mistranslation, which for instance manifests in lethal mitochondrial cardiomyopathy disorder. The response in plant cells is unknown. Glutaminyl-transfer RNAs (Gln-tRNA^Gln) of bacteria and endosymbiotic organelles are synthesized indirectly. Initially, tRNA^Gln is aminoacylated with glutamate. Subsequently, Gln is produced through trans-amidation by the aminoacyl-tRNA amido-transferase complex GatCAB. Consequentially, compromised GatCAB activity yields misloaded Glu-tRNA^Gln. Arabidopsis mutants with decreased GatCAB levels provide global insights into organellar mistranslation in plants: Our proteomics analyses revealed mutant-specific high plastid and low mitochondrial Gln-to-Glu misincorporation rates in organellar-expressed protein complexes with only modest protein abundance changes in plastids and none in mitochondria. We identify efficient compensatory mechanisms that mitigate the physiological consequences of elevated mistranslation in mutants. Interestingly, wild-type plants under temperature stress also have altered Gln-to-Glu misincorporation while temperature acclimation differs in Gln-to-Glu hypermistranslating mutants. Our study indicates that the response toward organellar mistranslation varies among eukaryotes and enables future detailed investigation of mistranslation compensation mechanisms in plant cells.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2537357123

Das P., Saha R., Panda D., Ghosh C. et al. (2026): AI-designed OpenCRISPR-1 performs robust knockout, base editing, and

prime editing in rice New Phytologist | https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.71272

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.71272

Sturchio E., Zanellato M., Mauro S., Boccia P. (2026): Prevention and protection of health and the environment in laboratories

using advanced and innovative biotechnological methods: results of an Italian project. Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy 52, 102462 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scp.2026.102462

Biotechnology offers innovative and sustainable solutions to address the main environmental and economic challenges of our time. In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in applying cutting-edge biotechnological techniques in various research fields, such as human health, agriculture and industry. Such rapid success brings challenges related to human health and environmental protection. Therefore, it is essential to provide up-to-date information on national regulations, educate on laboratory practices with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and microorganisms, create awareness and promote biosafety. The Inail Project titled “Prevention and protection of health and the environment in laboratories using advanced and innovative biotechnological methods” was aimed at promoting staff training and awareness to ensure compliance with the directives 2009/41/EC on the contained use of genetically modified microorganisms (GMM) and 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs by new biotechnological techniques users, through innovative methodologies characterized by a close synergy between students, safety managers and researchers. A neuromanagement analysis was also conducted to test the potential effect of specific biosafety training for biotechnology laboratory users. In addition, an inspection body was established, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Health, and inspections were carried out at biotechnology laboratories to continuously improve safety. Results showed that workers' training is a central element of prevention system and the use of neuromanagement analysis can be an important tool to complement traditional and necessary training activities. Therefore, these techniques can increase awareness of how emotions and life experiences influence decision–making processes and improve safety behaviors. Following the awareness-raising activity carried out at the Italian Universities, new ad hoc courses were created on biotechnology safety for PhD students, and degree and master's courses were updated. Therefore, it is worth underlining the proportional increase in authorization requests for contained use of genetically modified microorganisms presented to the Ministry of Health in the last three years, underlining how the widespread training/information activity through motivational methods has been successful. The training activities also focused on the use of New Genomic Techniques (NGT) in agriculture, considering the advent of the NGTs legislation. The goal was to train young experts with specific skills in preparing the required dossiers for risk assessment and approval of new products resulting from the application of NGTs. This training was deemed necessary to increase the authorization requests for contained use mainly due to the increase of agricultural biotechnology facilities application. The innovative aspect of this project was to combine regulatory, technical, and motivational aspects, to promote a safety culture and a greater awareness in the use of biotech techniques.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352554126001543

Huang, Y., Zhu, Y., Cui, Y. et al. Teosinte alleles enhance nitrogen assimilation and seed protein in maize. Nature (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10575-8

During maize (Zea mays L.) domestication, seed protein content sharply declined^1,2. In plants, glutamine and asparagine levels are closely correlated with protein content^3,4. Asparagine is synthesized from glutamine, a process catalysed by asparagine synthase⁵. Teosinte harbours a superior haplotype of asparagine synthase 4 (ASN4)². Here, we report that teosinte also possesses a superior haplotype gene promoting glutamine synthesis. We identify and clone teosinte high protein 3 (THP3), which encodes glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase 1 (GOT1), a key enzyme involved in nitrogen assimilation and carbon–nitrogen balance. The superior THP3-T allele, subjected to negative selection during domestication, has natural variations that boost both its expression and enzymatic activity. Overexpressing THP3-T, but not the modern THP3-B allele, significantly increases seed protein, representing altered carbon–nitrogen composition. Pyramiding THP3-T with THP9-T (the latter encoding asparagine synthase 4 (ASN4)) synergistically elevates both seed and whole-plant protein in elite hybrids while maintaining yield. Our findings demonstrate a powerful strategy for crop improvement by reintroducing beneficial rare alleles disfavoured during domestication from wild relatives.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10575-8

Meng, Yanjun, Tian, Zijia, Fan, Jiayi, He, Zhouxiang et al. (2026): Transcription factors TaPIL1 activated the iron deficiency

response and increased iron accumulation in wheat. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6839577 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6839577

Iron (Fe) is an important micronutrient to help people against iron deficiency anaemia. To conquer this problem, iron biofortification is a promising approach by breeding iron-rich wheat cultivar. In our study, a bHLH transcription factor TaPIL1 plays a critical role in iron deficiency in wheat. Under Fe deficiency treatment, the expression level of TaPIL1 was increased. In TaPIL1-5D overexpression (OE) lines, the plants accumulated more content of iron in the root, shoot and white flour from grain compared with wild type (WT), while the tapil1 CRISPR mutants accumulated less iron than WT. Meanwhile, Fe storge-related genes, as NATURAL RESISTANCE-ASSOCIATED MACROPHAGE PROTEIN 3 (NRAMP3) and Ferrtin1 (Fer1), has higher expression level in OE lines than WT. In Yeast-one‐hybrid, EMSA and LUC activity assays, TaPIL1-5D bound to the promoter of TaNRAMP3 and TaFer1, and activated their expression. TaPIL1-5B enhanced the transcriptional activation ability of TaPIL1-5D to TaNRAMP3 and TaFer1. Moreover, the seedlings and grains of wheat varieties carrying elite of TaPIL1-5B exhibited higher expression level of TaNRAMP3 and TaFer1, and more iron content than non-elite haplotype wheat varieties. Collectively, our results highlighted that TaPIL1-TaNRAMP3/TaFer1 module functioned in iron accumulation in wheat, showing a potential role in iron accumulation for wheat breeding.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6839577

D’Costa S., Choudhary S. K., Kenney G.E., Shine J. et al. (2026): CRISPR-mediated engineering of bovine satellite cells for

Alpha-Gal Syndrome-compatible cultivated meat. doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.20.726299

Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS) is a potentially life-threatening allergy caused by an IgE-mediated immune response to galactose-α-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal), a carbohydrate epitope present in most mammalian meats. Currently, strict avoidance of mammalian meat remains the primary management strategy for affected individuals, and alpha-gal-free beef is not commercially available. Here, we leverage cultivated meat as a biotechnology plat-form to address this unmet clinical need by engineering alpha-gal–free bovine muscle cells. Using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, we disrupted GGTA1, the gene encoding α1,3-galactosyltransferase, in immortalized bovine satellite cells (iBSCs). High-efficiency editing produced clonal GGTA1 knockout iBSCs harboring a homozygous frameshift mutation. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence confirmed loss of the alpha-gal epitope, while bulk RNA-seq indicated minimal disruption of global gene expression and preserved myogenic differentiation capacity. Importantly, lysates from GGTA1 knockout iBSCs elicited substantially reduced basophil activation in assays using plasma from a patient with AGS, indicating reduced basophil activation consistent with reduced allergenic potential. Together, these findings establish a proof of concept for engineering AGS-compatible cultivated meat and demonstrate the potential of cultivated meat technologies to address human health challenges.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.20.726299v1

EFSA

FEZ Panel (2026): Revised safety evaluation of the food enzyme catalase from the non-genetically modified Aspergillus niger strain

CTS2093. EFSA Journal, 24(6), e10139. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10139

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10139

FEZ Panel (2026): Safety evaluation of the food enzyme β-glucosidase from the genetically modified Trichoderma reesei strain

DP-Nyk114. EFSA Journal, 24(6), e10129. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10129

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10129