First Gene-Edited Crop Trials to be Held on UK's Conventional Farms

The first gene-edited wheat and barley crop trials in Europe will be held on conventional farms, and will soon be underway in up to 25 farms in the United Kingdom. The trials, also called PROBITY (Platform to Rate Organisms Bred for Improved Traits and Yield) are being organized by the British on-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) along with partner organizations including  Rothamsted Research, the John Innes Centre, the University of Nottingham, and Aberystwyth University.

Two gene-edited crops developed at Rothamsted are included in the farm-based field trials. One is a line of barley that has been edited to produce a higher content of lipids in the leaves, and the other crop is a wheat variety that has been gene-edited to lower the levels of amino acid aspargine in the grain when cooked.

Rothamsted's Prof. Nigel Halford said, “This is a very exciting project, but it is important that expectations regarding the commercial prospects of this research are kept in perspective.“It could take several years before foods derived from gene-edited crops grown in the UK become generally available, not least because the secondary legislation to implement the Precision Breeding Act is still being finalized for introduction to Parliament later this year.”

For more details, read the article in Agriland.