Sunday Evening News 480/ 2026
Weekly report on genetic engineering, genome editing, biotechnology and legal regulation.
June 2026-06-22 - 2026-06-28 Week 26
Vielleicht das Wichtigste dieser Woche: Am 26.06.2026 wurde die Verordnung zur Regulierung der NGTs bei Pflanzen im Amtsblatt der EU veröffentlicht.
VERORDNUNG (EU) 2026/1388 DES EUROPÄISCHEN PARLAMENTS UND DES RATES vom 17. Juni 2026 über mit bestimmten neuen genomischen Techniken gewonnene Pflanzen und die aus ihnen gewonnenen Erzeugnisse sowie zur Änderung der Verordnung (EU) 2017/625. ABl. L vom 26.6.2026
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202601388
Die Verordnung geht direkt in die nationale Gesetzgebung über. Aber dennoch muss die nationale Gentechnik-Gesetzgebung in einigen Punkten an die neue Verordnung angepasst werden.
Perhaps the most important news of the week: On June 26, 2026, the regulation governing NGTs in plants was published in the Official Journal of the EU.
REGULATION (EU) 2026/1388 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 June 2026 on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their products, and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/625
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202601388
The regulation is directly incorporated into national law. Nevertheless, national legislation on genetic engineering must be amended in certain respects to bring it into line with the new regulation.
Meetings – Conferences / Treffen - Veranstaltungen
From Gene Editing to the Field: NGT-1 Crops and the New EU Legal Landscape
Welcome to an afternoon seminar on what the new EU legislation on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) may mean for crop research, plant breeding and future agriculture.
07.09.2026
https://www.slu.se/en/calendar/2026/09/from-gene-editing-to-the-field/
Press Releases - Media / Presse- und Medienberichte
BMLEH: Neue genomische Techniken
https://www.bmleh.de/DE/themen/landwirtschaft/biotechnologie/ngt.html
Sarma A.: Neue Gentechnik in Europa: Ein überfälliger Schritt – und Deutschlands Ausweichen
Informationsdienst Gentechnik: EU-Länder: Gentechnik-Bakterien schneller freisetzen
Wirl L.: Press Release: EU, stop fooling yourself – ‘New’ GM food: EU drops all protection of health, farmers and
environment
Molitorisová A., Hubar-Kołodziejczyk A.: New Genomic Techniques in Food and Feed - The Inevitability of Technological Change
https://verfassungsblog.de/new-genomic-techniques/
Only some selected press releases or media reports are listed here. The daily up-date of the press releases and
media reports are ►here: June-week 26/2026
Publications – Publikationen
Ramachandran H, Dobner J, Nguyen T, Binder S, Tolle I et al. (2026): CleanFinder: A scalable framework for comprehensive
genome editing analysis. Trends in Biotechnology | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2026.04.024
Genome editing often generates complex mixtures of alleles rather than single, predefined outcomes. Resolving these heterogeneous edits across diverse editing modalities, sequencing platforms, and multiplexed designs remains a persistent analytical challenge. To address this, we developed CleanFinder, a browser-native framework for genotyping genome editing outcomes using a constrained semi-global alignment strategy. Context-aware alignment modes support a broad spectrum of editing scenarios, including indels, base substitutions, and complex prime editing modifications across nuclear and mitochondrial targets. Additional modules include an optional turbo mode for high-throughput heuristic alignment in exploratory workflows and an allele-aware module that leverages heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphisms to detect allelic dropout. To evaluate scalability and practical performance, we applied CleanFinder to a primary small-molecule screen of 1849 compounds in HEK293T cells. The software efficiently processed the dataset, enabling high-throughput comparison of editing outcomes and nomination of candidate compounds for follow-up analysis. Together, CleanFinder provides a flexible and scalable platform for genome editing analysis, enabling detailed genotyping and systematic comparison of editing outcomes across diverse edit types and genomic contexts.
Kelany S., ZhuO., Guo L. (2026): Recent Advances in Plant Genetics and Genomics. Plants 15 (13), 1947 |
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15131947
https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/15/13/1947
Van Der Straeten, D., Bulut, M., Cao, D. et al. (2026): Genetic technologies to enhance crop nutritional value under climate
change. Nature 654, 877–891 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10593-6
At present, more than 700 million people live with caloric hunger, and more than two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, known as ‘hidden hunger’. From an agricultural viewpoint, three major objectives need to be worked towards simultaneously to achieve zero hunger (the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2): (1) enhanced yield; (2) higher vitamin and mineral density to sustain recommended daily intake (multi-biofortification); and (3) enhanced climate-change resilience. Although the Green Revolution increased global calorie production, it exacerbated hidden hunger by prioritizing high yield over nutritional quality. Stress from global climate change has been shown to reduce the densities of several micronutrients. CRISPR–Cas, which allows genome editing with extremely high precision, has emerged as a groundbreaking breeding technology that has already been adopted by many countries. Here we examine how CRISPR–Cas-based approaches could be used to achieve biofortification targets by enhancing micronutrient densities to the levels necessary to alleviate dietary vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Given the limited time frame available to achieve zero hunger, we argue that CRISPR–Cas technologies should be combined with metabolic engineering based on transformation and other technologies. We also consider untapped resources beyond metabolic pathways and current CRISPR–Cas methodologies to address one of the most important societal issues of the twenty-first century.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10593-6
Sede, A.R., Moorlach, B., Galli, M. et al. (2026): The unfulfilled potential of nanocarriers for RNA delivery in antiviral crop
protection. Nat. Plants| https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-026-02323-7
Gene silencing mediated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is a promising strategy for crop protection. However, unlike applications targeting fungi or insects, effective antiviral use of exogenous dsRNA requires delivery into the plant cytoplasm, where viruses replicate. Limited cellular uptake and rapid instability on leaf surfaces have driven the development of diverse nanocarrier platforms, including layered double hydroxides, carbon nanotubes, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, chitosan complexes, lipid-based particles and bacterially encapsulated dsRNA. Although these systems often enhance dsRNA stability and apoplastic accumulation, robust symplastic delivery remains poorly characterized. Here we critically examine the gap between experimental success and agronomic performance of nanocarrier-enabled dsRNA delivery systems. Comparative analyses suggest that carrier dose, size, ζ-potential and organic phase affinity influence systemic translocation within the plant, providing a framework for rational carrier design. Defining such principles will be essential for translating RNA-based antiviral strategies into reliable field applications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-026-02323-7
Nyerges, A., Chiappino-Pepe, A., Budnik, B. et al. (2026): Probing the limits of genetic recoding using multi-omics-guided
evolution. Nat Commun 17, 5311 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74300-9
Engineering the genetic code—by reassigning multiple of the 64 natural codons—enables making organisms resistant to all viruses, preventing genetic information exchange, and allowing the biosynthesis of genetically encoded unnatural polymers. However, synonymous codon replacement—recoding—is frequently lethal, and how recoding impacts fitness remains poorly explored. Here, we explore these effects using genome synthesis, directed evolution, and genome-transcriptome-translatome-proteome co-profiling on multiple synthetic Escherichia coli genomes. We construct six partially recoded E. coli strains bearing up to 45.8% of a synthetic genome with a deleterious 57-codon genetic code. As our analyses revealed widespread defects—including unassigned codons in Syn61 and Syn57—we apply multi-omics to revise our genome design and mitigate defects. Using multi-omics, we show that recoding induces transcriptional and translational changes leading to fitness defects under hundreds of conditions. Finally, we develop a multi-omics-guided evolution strategy that rapidly restores fitness, enabling genome synthesis with radical changes.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-74300-9
Ning W., Arick M.A., II, Udall,J. A, +16 , Wendel J. F. (20026): Genomic diversity and the domestication history of cotton
(Gossypium hirsutum). PNAS 123 (21), e2607107123 | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2607107123
Gossypium hirsutum is the leading fiber crop globally, but its origin as a domesticated plant and patterns of diversity in the wild remain to be elucidated. Here, we use extensive sampling of wild populations and comparative genome sequence data to illuminate the scope and patterning of wild cotton diversity across its native range. Analyses confirm the hypothesis that the Yucatán Peninsula (México) is the center of domestication, from which the original perennial forms and later modern annualized cultivars were derived. Population structure and phylogenomic analyses indicate that northwestern Yucatán harbors greater genetic diversity relative to smaller, geographically dispersed populations in northeastern Yucatán and the Caribbean basin. Genetic load and transposable element burden also are the lowest in northwestern Yucatán relative to other regions, consistent with its greater diversity and reflecting the effects of historical genetic bottlenecks in other populations. Populations from Florida and elsewhere in the Caribbean basin maintain unique pockets of diversity. Analyses of selection suggest that cotton domestication entailed long-term accumulation of mutations with relatively minor phenotypic effects, as opposed to a more punctuated process involving major domestication genes. Our study quantifies the scope and scale of genomic diversity in wild cotton, the origin of the cultivated gene pool, and the likely ecological and anthropogenic processes that shaped extant diversity and modern geographic patterning.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2607107123
Wang B., Cao X., Lin Z., Zhuang Y. et al. (2026): Establishing efficient multi-gene editing tools for papaya, Horticulture
Research, 13 (5), uhag049 | https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhag049
Papaya is a major tropical fruit crop with notable nutritional and economic value, yet its genetic improvement through modern breeding technologies faces substantial challenges. The traditional tissue culture process is both labor-intensive and time-consuming, causing gene-editing advancements in papaya to lag behind those in other crops. To overcome these obstacles, we developed a tissue culture–independent hairy root system in papaya, which enables efficient gene editing and significantly enhances the application and development of editing tools. This innovative platform allows for the pre-assessment of editing efficiency and supports the establishment of adenine base editor (ABE) and cytosine base editor (CBE) tools in papaya, thereby mitigating the high failure costs associated with the lengthy cycle of conventional genetic transformation. Utilizing this system, we pre-tested sgRNA activity and achieved high editing efficiency of CpWIP3 during stable transformation. Additionally, through promoter screening, we successfully developed ABE and CBE tools, marking the first precise single-nucleotide editing system in papaya. This gene-editing system provides a crucial platform for advancing functional genomics and accelerating precision breeding in papaya.
https://academic.oup.com/hr/article/13/5/uhag049/8491871
EFSA
FEZ Panel (2026): Safety evaluation of the food enzyme dextransucrase from the genetically modified Bacillus subtilis strain
DP-Eyp97. EFSA Journal, 24(6), e10138. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10138
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10138