Gene-edited oats in the cards?
WINNIPEG — For decades, Canadian oat breeders have relied on traditional methods, such as selection and crossing promising lines, to design superior varieties of oats.
That may soon change.
Researchers at McGill University announced June 10 that they used a gene editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9 to alter key traits such as plant maturity and beta glucan content in oats.
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“We were able to make very specific genetic changes in oats that would traditionally take years to achieve through conventional breeding,” said Jaswinder Singh, a plant scientist at McGill and leader of the study on gene-edited oats.
“Our method not only speeds up the breeding process but also allows us to avoid introducing foreign DNA into the plants, making them safer and more acceptable to consumers.”
Genome editing, or gene editing, involves changing the genetic code of a plant with technology such as CRISPR-Cas9, a technique used to cut sections of DNA. Scientists from California and France won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of CRISPR.
The technology has been around for more than a decade, but many countries, including Canada, have been slow to approve the use of gene editing in agriculture. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency sanctioned the use of gene edited crops in livestock feed in the spring of 2024, the final approval in a process that dragged on for years.
“The finalized CFIA guidance on livestock feed will support research and development of new varieties that use gene editing to enhance traits such as drought, pest and disease resistance, and input use efficiency among others,” Krista Zuzak, director for crop protection and production with Cereals Canada, said last year.
The McGill scientists believe CRISPR could lead to oat varieties with earlier flowering times and fewer days to maturity.
If that’s possible, it could benefit farmers on the Prairies, where most of Canada’s oat crop is grown.
“By developing oats that mature earlier or can handle colder conditions, we’re helping farmers in regions with short growing seasons or unpredictable weather patterns grow more reliable and sustainable crops,” said Mehtab Singh, a PhD student and lead author of the paper, which was published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.
Faster and more precise development of new oat varieties would benefit farmers, but what about consumers?
Would mothers in Chicago, Toronto or Dallas make instant oatmeal for their kids if the oats came from gene edited crops in Western Canada?
That’s hard to know, but many countries around the world, including Japan, the United States, Argentina, Canada and Australia, are supporting gene edited technology in food production.
Last month, India released two gene-edited varieties of rice, effectively announcing to the world that India, a country of 1.5 billion people, is committed to new plant breeding technologies.
“Under the guidance of the prime minister, agricultural research has been given a new direction,” Indian agriculture minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in May.
“This is a golden opportunity for the agriculture sector…. These new varieties will play a leading role in heralding the second Green Revolution.”
Source: producer.com