From enhancing our favorite foods to helping farmers grow healthy, abundant crops in a sustainable way, gene-edited soybeans offer so many benefits.

Learn more about why Gene, scientists, farmers and those who produce our food are excited about an amazing technology that makes life better for you and our planet.

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From salad dressings and sauces to the oil for your fried favorites, a better-than-ever soybean is making a big splash thanks to gene editing.

It’s an evolution of plant breeding that shows tremendous promise in helping farmers preserve our planet and improve our food.

Through gene editing, we now have a high-oleic, heart healthy oil made from soybeans – the first commercially available gene-edited food product. With zero trans fats, this odorless, colorless, neutral-flavored oil also has a longer shelf life and performs well under high heat conditions like baking and frying making it ideal for cooks in kitchens around the world.

Farmers have begun growing high-protein gene-edited soybeans, too, helping to meet the growing demand for plant-based foods and improving feed for animals and fish.

Growing soybeans in a more sustainable way – growing enough food using less land and water has farmers across the U.S. excited about gene editing.

Whether it’s growing healthy, abundant crops, caring for the environment or enhancing our favorite foods gene-edited soybeans are making waves and it’s just the beginning of great things to come.

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A new discovery is creating a lot of interest gene editing. CRISPR is a technology that allows scientists to make precise changes in genetic code. To find out more about this scientific discovery and its potential uses, Best Food Facts asked blogger Lynne Feifer of 365 Days of Baking to bring her passion for food into the research lab and explore CRISPR technology.

Lynne interviewed Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou in his laboratory at North Carolina State University. “I tend to think of myself as a CRISPR expert and CRISPR enthusiast, as well as a food scientist,” he said.

Lynne asked Dr. Barrangue to explain what CRISPR is.

“CRISPR is actually an acronym, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. It’s a very cumbersome name arguably, but at the same time a very catchy and easy to remember acronym,” he said.

Dr. Barrangou explained that this gene-editing technology works much like a text editor that changes a letter in a word.

“CRISPR in many ways is a molecular scalpel that enables scientists to cut DNA. You can very precisely, very selectively, very efficiently cut DNA. That’s what geneticists do. They find a particular sentence that is unique in the book of life in the DNA code of any particular cell, look for the mistake and then replace this mistake and edit it out with this corrected version,” he explained.

There are many ways that it can be used.

“It’s a question of when, not if, CRISPR-based technologies solve the biggest challenge of medicine, things like curing HIV, curing Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, curing cancer, curing people who are sick,” Dr. Barrangou said.

Lynne looked further into the potential for CRISPR as it relates to treating disease and making food healthier. Check out the other videos in the series: How Can CRISPR Treat Disease? and How Can CRISPR Improve Food?

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CRISPR is a precise gene-editing tool that has potential to treat diseases in humans and animals. Blogger Lynne Feifer of 365 Days of Baking helped Best Food Facts find out more about this technology and how it can be used.

“This is such a powerful, potent promising technology. We have so much at stake here in food and ag for animals and plants, agriculture, biotechnology, biofuels, medicine, the clinic translational medicine to cure disease and feed the world,” said Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, whom Lynne interviewed at his lab at North Carolina State University.

One possible application for CRISPR is in treating sickle cell, an inherited disease. The disease affects 100,000 people in the United States and is most common among African-Americans. Dr. Nazia Tabassum is a pediatric specialist who treats sickle cell patients.

“Some of the patients come in for severe complications like severe pain crisis which requires IV narcotics and hydration. Some of these kids can also have severe sickling in their lungs which we call acute chest syndrome, which is a medical emergency,” she said.

Lynne had planned to interview Shakir Cannon, who had battled sickle cell disease his entire life and was a passionate advocate for CRISPR technology. However, he passed away in December 2017.

CRISPR also has potential to ease suffering and cure diseases among animals. Lynne talked to Erin Brenneman, a pig farmer in Iowa who said they are interested in how CRISPR might cure a disease called PRRS. “The acronym PRRS stands for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. It is the most economically and emotionally draining disease for all those raising pigs in North America, Europe and Asia,” Brenneman said.

She said pig farmers are excited about the potential for PRRS to cure the disease.

Check out the other videos in the series What is CRISPR? and How Can CRISPR Improve Food?

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Blogger Lynne Feifer of 365 Days of Baking has been learning about CRISPR gene-editing technology and its potential. Lynne is usually in her kitchen stirring up new recipes, so she was very interested to learn how CRISPR might be applied to make foods better. She started her journey with Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou who explained how this gene-editing tool works in Part 1. Part 2 looked at how CRISPR could treat disease.

“As a food blogger, I get a lot of my followers coming to me asking for diabetic recipes, gluten-free recipes, allergenic recipes. How does CRISPR fit into that?” Lynne asked.

“Enter CRISPR to the rescue,” Dr. Barrangou said. “If you are allergic or if you don’t like this particular compound in this particular trait, we can inactivate it. We can make gluten-free wheat. We can make hypoallergenic nuts. If we know what the gene is, we can take it out or turn it off or turn it down.”

That’s exactly what Dr. Jessica Lyons and her team are researching at the University of California Berkeley. Their research is focused on using CRISPR technology to remove a deadly compound in the cassava plant, which is also known as yucca.

“Cassava is a really important staple crop for about 800 million people in tropical and subtropical regions of the world,” Dr. Lyons said. She noted that stunting in children under age 5 caused by malnourishment is prevalent in the regions where cassava is widely consumed. However, the plant contains compounds that can cause people to be poisoned from cyanide if the root has not been sufficiently processed.

“If people are relying on cassava and they’re ingesting the cyanide over time, they can get these neurological disorders. The best known one is called konzo and it causes paralysis of the lower extremities,” Dr. Lyons said. “For people who eat plenty of protein in their diet, the cyanide is not as much of a threat. But for people who don’t have much to eat besides cassava, then the cyanide poisoning is more of a threat.”

In the lab, she is working to remove the compounds that cause poisoning.

“We’re going to use CRISPR as a tool to knock out some genes that are very important for the pathway that result in these cyanogenic glucosides. We expect that by knocking these genes out, we’ll remove the cyanogenic glucosides from the root and so the cassava will not release the cyanide any more,” Dr. Lyons said.

Lynne observed that Dr. Lyons is very passionate about the project and asked why. “I’ve been the recipient of a great deal of privilege in my life and I’m aware of that. I think that my work on projects like this are a great opportunity to use the knowledge and the resources and skills that I have to have a positive impact on the world,” she said.

Lynne said her experiences learning about CRISPR had been enlightening.

“After my series of conversations with researchers, it is clear to me CRISPR technology has the potential to make a positive impact on the world in human medicine, disease prevention and food improvements –- and that’s only a few of the possibilities,” she said.

The other videos in the series are What is CRISPR Technology? and How Can CRISPR Treat Disease?

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We reached out to Robert Wager,  biochemist and member of the Biology Department of Vancouver Island University, and Dr. Steve Taylor, Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology and Co-founder and Co-Director of the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to give us further clarification on what gluten-free wheat means.

Wager explained what gluten is. “Gluten is made up of two main types of protein, one of which is gliadin. Gliadin is the protein that causes the most allergic reactions.” The new gluten-free variety is being developed from regular wheat that has been gene-edited to reduce the amount of gliadin.

How do this gliadin protein and gene-editing work? Gene editing, or CRISPR, is a group of technologies that allow genetic material to be added, removed or altered at a particular location in a genome.  In this case, scientists go into the wheat’s DNA and edit out a particular amount of gliadin.

“Gluten-free wheat is a 97% reduction in gliadin content. This version of gluten-free wheat is removing about three-quarters of the gliadin genes,” Wager said.

It’s important to note that only 97% of the gliadin is being removed because anyone who is allergic to gluten could still experience a reaction. However, Wager points out, “It could be a great product for them, but that’s yet to be determined.” Everyone’s gluten intolerance is different and therefore their response to the remaining gliadin is unknown.

For those of us not allergic to gluten, we shouldn’t be concerned. Wager says normal bread eaters won’t be affected any differently. Instead you’ll have something resembling a flatbread in appearance and texture.

One thing Wager thought it was important to point out was that within wheat, “there are approximately 45 types of gliadin genes. What physiological effects will occur if we remove all 45 of them is not known. Physiological effects are the plant’s ability to fight off a disease or infection. If they continue to remove or de-activate all the gliadin, there will be a huge unknown impact on the wheat.”

What does this mean for those with celiac disease and gluten intolerance? Dr. Taylor explained there are other types of gluten-free options such as sourdough and heritage wheat.

“Heritage wheat is a term that I have seen used to describe wheat that is safe for celiac sufferers,” says Dr. Taylor. “It means the rather old wheat varieties, now called emmer and einkorn. These old varieties of wheat have less gluten than the regular bread wheat that is most typically used in today’s processed foods, but they still do have gluten.”

Even then, Dr. Taylor cautions that not all those with celiac would be able to tolerate it.

With sourdough, the slow lacto-fermentation process makes the bread (mostly) gluten free. This fermentation process also makes detecting any residual gluten more difficult, which has made the FDA slightly more reluctant to label sourdough as gluten free. Dr. Taylor gives us the example of gluten-free beer and how labeling it as so is somewhat of a risk. “There is evidence that some with celiac disease can tolerate sourdough,” Dr. Taylor says, but people with the disease should be cautious.

Either way, sourdough has a unique flavor and heritage wheat “definitely does not make great bread due to the lower gluten content” Dr. Taylor informs us.

Wager and Dr. Taylor agree that gluten-free wheat and bread probably won’t take over the market. The number of people allergic to gluten is a significantly smaller number compared to the number of people that are not allergic and the proteins with unique functional properties make gluten a rather important ingredient in foods. The experts also agree that while it is unclear when gluten-free wheat will hit markets, when it does, those truly allergic to gluten and suffering from celiac disease should treat it with caution.

“The allergic response to the remaining gliadin (gluten) is unknown and will depend on one’s gluten-intolerance,” Dr. Taylor said. “The biggest risk would be some people might be duped into believing that products are gluten free when they’re not.”

The FDA regulates the labeling of gluten-free products. He said labeling is a complex process. “In my view, FDA would be reluctant to grant permission to use gluten-free wheat on products made from heritage wheat or from sourdough-fermented products because FDA has not yet promulgated a final rule for use of gluten-free on fermented products,” he said. “That leaves genetically-engineered wheat. This form of gluten-free wheat might be okayed by FDA to be labeled as gluten-free.”

So is new gluten-free wheat a gamechanger?  Wager says that he “would not consider this a possible game changer, ” but he does believe that it could be the start of gene-editing products that could directly benefit us as consumers. Dr. Taylor considers this gene-edited wheat to be a potential game-changer, but that consumers may consider it a GMO, which might affect its acceptance.

Gluten-free wheat created through gene editing will not be on the market for some time, but it has endless market possibilities. The wheat may provide some benefit for those who are gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive. Maybe one day we’ll say, “I remember gluten bread.”

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We wanted to know more about this technology, so we reached out to Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, Cooperative Extension Specialist in Animal Genomics and Biotechnology at the University of California-Davis, for some insight into what this technology is and why it’s being used on some foods.

What is CRISPR?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regulatory Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats.” It refers to a specific type of gene editing that can precisely edit or change the genetic code, or DNA, within a specific living animal or plant. In the same way that spell check identifies and corrects single-letter errors in a word or grammar errors in a sentence, gene editing can be used to identify and change the letters that make up the genetic code.

Is gene editing the same as genetic modification/engineering?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Gene editing is different from traditional genetic engineering. Continuing with the analogy of a word processor, genetic engineering enables a gene sequence of “foreign DNA” to be “cut and pasted” from one species to another; typically, the location where the new DNA sequence inserts into the genome is random. Gene editing can, delete, or replace a series of letters in the genetic code at a very precise location in the genome. If editing is used to add some letters, they may or may not be a sequence from the same species.

What can CRISPR gene-editing technology be used for?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: The basic idea behind gene editing is the ability to introduce, delete or replace letters in the genetic code, which could be helpful in correcting certain diseases and disorders, or for selecting specific desired traits (for example, a mushroom that doesn’t brown).

Are there any regulations surrounding the use of this technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires all food placed on the market to be safe irrespective of the breeding method that was used to produce that food. That requirement is inescapable. Plants and animals produced using conventional breeding techniques require no special pre-market safety review, although they are required to be safe. In the case of plants where biotechnology has been used in the breeding process, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Biotechnology Regulatory Services has a specific “Am I Regulated?” process to determine if the new plant variety may pose a pest risk to plants. If it does not, then it is not considered a regulated article. The response of APHIS to other “Am I Regulated” letters is available here.

With regard to animals, at the current time it is unclear whether gene editing will be formally regulated by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine as a “New Animal Drug,” as is the case with animals that have been produced using genetic engineering. Animal breeding per se is not regulated by the federal government, although it is illegal to sell an unsafe food product regardless of the breeding method that was used to produce it. Gene editing does not necessarily introduce any foreign genetic DNA or “transgenic sequences” into the genome, and many of the changes produced would not be distinguishable from naturally-occurring variations. As such, many applications will not fit the classical definition of genetic engineering.

What is CRISPR’s potential impact to food and agriculture?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Gene editing could be used to target many different traits in agricultural breeding programs. For example, it has already been used to produce genetically hornless Holstein dairy cattle and to generate pigs that show resilience to devastating diseases such as African Swine Fever. Recently, a paper was published showing that gene-edited pigs were protected from Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus, a particularly devastating disease of the global pork industry. It has also been used in plant breeding to produce non-browning mushrooms by knocking out the gene responsible for producing the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which causes browning in some fruits when they are exposed to air, but otherwise lacks any indispensable role in plant metabolism.

Are there any risks associated with use of the technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: There are potential risks and hazards associated with any technology. In this case, the most obvious potential hazard might be off-target changes in the genome — meaning a change in the DNA code at a location other than that targeted. This same hazard is associated with conventional breeding techniques like mutagenesis. In fact, gene editing is much more precise than random mutagenesis, which has been used in the development of over 3,000 varieties of plants. Random naturally-occurring mutations happen in every species, including our own, every generation. They are the basis of the genetic variation we see in natural populations and are in fact the driving force of evolution and agricultural breeding programs.

Why was CRISPR used on mushrooms?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: According to the letter submitted to the USDA, CRISPR was used to produce non-browning mushrooms. As previously mentioned, the researched inactivated the gene that codes for polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which causes browning in some fruits when they are exposed to air. A similar naturally-occurring mutation in the same PPO gene happened in grapes in Australia in 1962 in a grape line called “Sultana.” The fruits were pale and exhibited a significant decrease in PPO activity and were used to produce golden sultanas. This PPO enzyme is also the one that was turned off in the Innate non-browning potato and the Arctic Apple. Such non-browning food products will help reduce food waste.

What do consumers need to know about foods made using CRISPR technology — mushrooms, for example? Are they safe?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: As with all breeding methods, the safety of food derived from new varieties depends on the attributes of the end product, not the breeding method that was used to derive them. It is illegal to sell an unsafe food product regardless of the breeding method that was used to produce it. Every meal we have ever consumed contains genetic variation. A bite of apple has a very different protein and DNA makeup than a bite of banana. The digestive process breaks down DNA irrespective of its origin — and DNA is GRAS (generally regarded as safe), which is good as ALL food contains DNA. The sequence of the DNA does not matter from a food safety perspective. When turning off a protein like the PPO gene, there is no new protein being introduced into the mushroom — the plant just does not produce the PPO protein that is normally consumed and digested when people eat mushrooms. Breeders are often changing the DNA and protein composition of common plants and animals — a Golden Delicious apple has a different composition than a Granny Smith apple, for example, but they are both safe to eat.

What other foods could benefit from this technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Really, all domesticated plant and animal breeding programs could benefit from breeding methods that enable breeders to more precisely improve key traits like disease resistance and resilience. Such improvement are likely to be increasingly valuable given projected climate variability and extreme weather events.

_{The image “DNA” by Caroline Davis2010 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

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