China fast-tracks edited wheat genome as part of food security drive
- The edit, which helps the crop resist a common fungal infection, was approved within an unusually short period
- It is the first wheat genome edit approved in China, which shows country’s interest in breeding better crops to protect food security, according to biotech firm’s boss
The genome edit – which gives wheat resistance to a common fungal infection called powdery mildew and can be applied to different varieties – is the result of work by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Suzhou-based biotechnology company Qi Biodesign.
The science behind the genome edit was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature in 2022, and was the result of eight years of work by researchers at the academy’s Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology.
Kevin Zhao, a co-founder of Qi Biodesign, said the firm had been working with regulators for the past two years to collect data and perform the safety checks needed to obtain a safety approval.
It was special to get this approval in such a “short time frame”, he said.
This is the first genome edit for wheat to be approved by the Chinese government, and it shows that the country “is very interested in pursuing more effective means to breed better crops in the future for food security purposes”, Zhao said.
