Eine Publikation, die die gesundheitliche Gefährdung von “Gen-Food“ beweisen soll, macht gerade die Runde. Es handelt sich um die Publikation von Taheri H, et al. (2024): Effect of genetically modified soybean oil consumption on biochemical and histological changes of liver and kidney in rats. Int J Drug Res Clin. 2024; 2: e11. doi: 10.34172/ijdrc.2024.e11. https://ijdrug.com/Article/ijdrc-3048

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A publication claiming to prove the health risks of "GM food" is currently making the rounds. It is the publication of Taheri H, et al. (2024): Effect of genetically modified soybean oil consumption on biochemical and histological changes of liver and kidney in rats. Int J Drug Res Clin. 2024; 2: e11. doi: 10.34172/ijdrc.2024.e11.

https://ijdrug.com/Article/ijdrc-3048

The publication has significant shortcomings. The WGG will respond!

What is your opinion about this paper? Let me know what you think!

Meetings - Tagungen

Die Genschere in Marburg, 1. & 2. November 2024

https://www.crispr-whisper.de/2024/08/20/die-genschere-in-marburg-1-2-november-2024/

International Conference on Plant Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing

2025-01-02  Kecskemét, Hungary

https://www.allconferencealert.com/event/1386882

http://aserd.org/Conference/722/ICPGEGE/

Press Releases - Media / Presse- und Medienberichte

Informationsdienst Gentechnik: 70 Prozent der Deutschen gegen Gentechnik-Anbau

https://www.keine-gentechnik.de/nachricht/34968

Bach S.: NGT: Warum der Non-GMO-Sektor bei der Regulierung Zeit gewinnen will

https://table.media/agrifood/analyse/ngt-warum-der-non-gmo-sektor-bei-der-regulierung-zeit-gewinnen-will/

AfD verlangt Verbot für Gentechnik-Patente

https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-1024906

Drucksache 20/13363: Biologische Vielfalt bewahren – Keine Patente auf Tiere und Pflanzen durch neue Gentechnik zulassen

https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/133/2013363.pdf

Compiled by Staff: Euroseeds 2024: Key Takeaways on Collaboration & Innovation

https://www.seedworld.com/europe/2024/10/17/euroseeds-2024-key-takeaways-on-collaboration-innovation/

Nagy: Hungary strives to create a competitive and sustainable agricultural sector

https://abouthungary.hu/news-in-brief/nagy-hungary-strives-to-create-a-competitive-and-sustainable-agricultural-sector

GM-Watch: GM soybean oil damages liver and kidneys

https://gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest-news/20467

20 new European patents on conventionally bred seeds

https://www.bioecoactual.com/en/2024/10/15/20-new-european-patents-on-conventionally-bred-seeds/

Seed patents: A huge challenge for the European Union October 2024

https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/report-2024

https://www.bioecoactual.com/en/2024/10/15/20-new-european-patents-on-conventionally-bred-seeds/

Waddell M.: What's the Difference Between Non-GMO and Organic?

https://www.nongmoproject.org/blog/whats-the-difference-between-non-gmo-and-organic/

Only some selected press releases or media reports are listed here. The daily up-date of the press releases and

media reports are ►here: October week 42

Publications – Publikationen

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Taheri H, Mesgari-Abbasi M, Khordadmehr M, Rahimi Mamaghani A, Abbasalizad-Farhangi M. (2024): Effect of genetically

modified soybean oil consumption on biochemical and histological changes of liver and kidney in rats. Int J Drug Res Clin. 2024; 2: e11. doi: 10.34172/ijdrc.2024.e11.

Background: The use of transgenic foods has increased global food production and food security. However, there are concerns about their potential negative impacts on health. Studies conducted on the effect of transgenic products on humans and animals are limited, and they do not provide an answer regarding the possible health hazards of transgenic products. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of a diet containing genetically modified soybean oil on organ health and biochemical changes in an experimental model.

Methods: The current study was conducted on 18 male Wistar rats in three different groups (6 rats per group). One group was fed a diet containing %10 genetically modified soybean oil for 90 days, while the other two groups served as control groups, receiving either non-genetically modified soybean oil or a standard diet, respectively. Body weight and food consumption were measured once and three times a week, respectively.

Results: Our findings indicated that transgenic soybean oil contributed to several histological derangements, including congestion, necrosis, and bile duct hyperplasia in the liver analysis. Similarly, congestion, hemorrhage, and glomerulosclerosis were observed in the kidney analysis. Moreover, transgenic soybean oil significantly increased gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) (P=0.047) and insulin (P=0.048) levels compared to a standard diet. Furthermore, urea and triglycerides (TG) were significantly higher in genetically modified (GM)-fed rats compared to rats fed with standard or non-GM diet (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results, a 90-day treatment with transgenic soy-based oil caused significant organ changes in the liver and kidneys of rats. Further studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects to better elucidate these impacts.

https://ijdrug.com/Article/ijdrc-3048

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Lukasiewicz J.M., van de Wiel C.CM., Lotz L AP., Smulders M JM (2024): Intellectual property rights and plants made by new

genomic techniques: Access to technology and gene-edited traits in plant breeding. Outlook on Agriculture 53 (3), 205–215 | https://doi.org/10.1177/00307270241277219

Gene editing has the potential to make new crop varieties faster and more efficiently. New and more suitable crop varieties can increase sustainable agriculture, for instance, in the form of disease-resistant varieties that facilitate integrated pest management. The European Commission’s proposal on the regulation of gene-edited and cisgenic plants produced with New Genomic Techniques (including CRISPR/Cas) has re-opened the discussion on Intellectual Property Rights on plants in Europe. We provide an overview of the possible impact of patent rights and Plant Variety Rights on the availability of technology and gene-edited alleles to breeders on an European level. We highlight potential problems with the two Intellectual Property Right systems and indicate potential avenues to solutions

https://edepot.wur.nl/675567

Hayes, B.J., Mahony, T.J., Villiers, K. et al. (2024): Potential approaches to create ultimate genotypes in crops and livestock.

Nat Genet | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01942-0

Many thousands and, in some cases, millions of individuals from the major crop and livestock species have been genotyped and phenotyped for the purpose of genomic selection. ‘Ultimate genotypes’, in which the marker allele haplotypes with the most favorable effects on a target trait or traits in the population are combined together in silico, can be constructed from these datasets. Ultimate genotypes display up to six times the performance of the current best individuals in the population, as demonstrated for net profit in dairy cattle (incorporating a range of economic traits), yield in wheat and 100-seed weight in chickpea. However, current breeding strategies that aim to assemble ultimate genotypes through conventional crossing take many generations. As a hypothetical thought piece, here, we contemplate three future pathways for rapidly achieving ultimate genotypes: accelerated recombination with gene editing, direct editing of whole-genome haplotype sequences and synthetic biology.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01942-0

Ritchie H. (2024): How will climate change affect crop yields in the future? OurWorldinData.org.

Maize yields could see significant declines, but wheat could increase. Impacts across the world will be very different.

https://ourworldindata.org/will-climate-change-affect-crop-yields-future

Kim S.-H., Choi I. and Kim J.-B. (2024): Advancing Plant Breeding with Next-Generation Technologies: Insights from

Recent Research. Plants 13 (20), 2877 | https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13202877

https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/20/2877

Liberty J.T., Poudel P. ,Ihedioha O., Gao Z., Adesoji A.T., Liberty S.J. (2024): Gene editing technology: shaping international

standards for health and food safety assurance. Trends in Biotechnology

The emergence of gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized health and food safety, necessitating robust international standards. This Science & Society examines how these advances have shaped global regulatory frameworks, ethical standards, and international collaborations, emphasizing the need for cohesive and ethical applications across various sectors.

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/abstract/S0167-7799(24)00279-8

Tomkova, M., McClellan, M.J., Crevel, G. et al. (2024): Human DNA polymerase ε is a source of C>T mutations at CpG

dinucleotides. Nat Genet | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01945-x

C-to-T transitions in CpG dinucleotides are the most prevalent mutations in human cancers and genetic diseases. These mutations have been attributed to deamination of 5-methylcytosine (5mC), an epigenetic modification found on CpGs. We recently linked CpG>TpG mutations to replication and hypothesized that errors introduced by polymerase ε (Pol ε) may represent an alternative source of mutations. Here we present a new method called polymerase error rate sequencing (PER-seq) to measure the error spectrum of DNA polymerases in isolation. We find that the most common human cancer-associated Pol ε mutant (P286R) produces an excess of CpG>TpG errors, phenocopying the mutation spectrum of tumors carrying this mutation and deficiencies in mismatch repair. Notably, we also discover that wild-type Pol ε has a sevenfold higher error rate when replicating 5mCpG compared to C in other contexts. Together, our results from PER-seq and human cancers demonstrate that replication errors are a major contributor to CpG>TpG mutagenesis in replicating cells, fundamentally changing our understanding of this important disease-causing mutational mechanism.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01945-x

Zhou, Z., Kaur, R., Donoso, T., Ohm, J.-B., Gupta, R., Lefsrud, M. and Singh, J. (2024): Metabolic Engineering-Induced

Transcriptome Reprogramming of Lipid Biosynthesis Enhances Oil Composition in Oat.  Plant Biotechnology Journal | https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14467

The endeavour to elevate the nutritional value of oat (Avena sativa) by altering the oil composition and content positions it as an optimal crop for fostering human health and animal feed. However, optimization of oil traits on oat through conventional breeding is challenging due to its quantitative nature and complexity of the oat genome. We introduced two constructs containing three key genes integral to lipid biosynthesis and/or regulatory pathways from Arabidopsis (AtWRI1 and AtDGAT1) and Sesame (SiOLEOSIN) into the oat cultivar ‘Park’ to modify the fatty acid composition. Four homozygous transgenic lines were generated with a transformation frequency of 7%. The expression of these introduced genes initiated a comprehensive transcriptional reprogramming in oat grains and leaves. Notably, endogenous DGAT, WRI1 and OLEOSIN genes experienced upregulation, while genes associated with fatty acid biosynthesis, such as KASII, SACPD and FAD2, displayed antagonistic expression patterns between oat grains and leaves. Transcriptomic analyses highlighted significant differential gene expression, particularly enriched in lipid metabolism. Comparing the transgenic oat plants with the wild type, we observed a remarkable increase of up to 34% in oleic acid content in oat grains. Furthermore, there were marked improvements in the total oil content in oat leaves, as well as primary metabolites changes in both oat grains and leaves, while maintaining homeostasis in the transgenic oat plants. These findings underscore the effectiveness of genetic engineering in manipulating oat oil composition and content, offering promising implications for human consumption and animal feeding through oat crop improvement programmes.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.14467

Zheng, X., Tang, X., Wu, Y., Zheng, X., Zhou, J. et al. (2024): An efficient CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated MicroRNA knockout

strategy in plants. Plant Biotechnol. J. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14484

In recent years, the CRISPR-Cas9 nuclease has been used to knock out MicroRNA (miRNA) genes in plants, greatly promoting the study of miRNA function. However, due to its propensity for generating small insertions and deletions, Cas9 is not well-suited for achieving a complete knockout of miRNA genes. By contrast, CRISPR-Cas12a nuclease generates larger deletions, which could significantly disrupt the secondary structure of pre-miRNA and prevent the production of mature miRNAs. Through the case study of OsMIR390 in rice, we confirmed that Cas12a is a more efficient tool than Cas9 in generating knockout mutants of a miRNA gene. To further demonstrate CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated knockout of miRNA genes in rice, we targeted nine OsMIRNA genes that have different spaciotemporal expression and have not been previously investigated via genetic knockout approaches. With CRISPR-Cas12a, up to 100% genome editing efficiency was observed at these miRNA loci. The resulting larger deletions suggest Cas12a robustly generated null alleles of miRNA genes. Transcriptome profiling of the miRNA mutants, as well as phenotypic analysis of the rice grains revealed the function of these miRNAs in controlling gene expression and regulating grain quality and seed development. This study established CRISPR-Cas12a as an efficient tool for genetic knockout of miRNA genes in plants.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.14484

Mangilet, A.F., Weber, J., Schüler, S. et al. (2024): The Arabidopsis U1 snRNP regulates mRNA 3′-end processing.

Nat. Plants | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01796-8

The removal of introns by the spliceosome is a key gene regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes, with the U1 snRNP subunit playing a crucial role in the early stages of splicing. Studies in metazoans show that the U1 snRNP also conducts splicing-independent functions, but the lack of genetic tools and knowledge about U1 snRNP-associated proteins have limited the study of such splicing-independent functions in plants. Here we describe an RNA-centric approach that identified more than 200 proteins associated with the Arabidopsis U1 snRNP and revealed a tight link to mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation factors. Interestingly, we found that the U1 snRNP protects mRNAs against premature cleavage and polyadenylation within introns—a mechanism known as telescripting in metazoans—while also influencing alternative polyadenylation site selection in 3′-UTRs. Overall, our work provides a comprehensive view of U1 snRNP interactors and reveals novel functions in regulating mRNA 3′-end processing in Arabidopsis, laying the groundwork for understanding non-canonical functions of plant U1 snRNPs.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-024-01796-8

Bolognini, D., Halgren, A., Lou, R.N. et al. (2024): Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the

amylase locus. Nature 634, 617–625 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07911-1

The adoption of agriculture triggered a rapid shift towards starch-rich diets in human populations¹. Amylase genes facilitate starch digestion, and increased amylase copy number has been observed in some modern human populations with high-starch intake², although evidence of recent selection is lacking^3,4. Here, using 94 long-read haplotype-resolved assemblies and short-read data from approximately 5,600 contemporary and ancient humans, we resolve the diversity and evolutionary history of structural variation at the amylase locus. We find that amylase genes have higher copy numbers in agricultural populations than in fishing, hunting and pastoral populations. We identify 28 distinct amylase structural architectures and demonstrate that nearly identical structures have arisen recurrently on different haplotype backgrounds throughout recent human history. AMY1 and AMY2A genes each underwent multiple duplication/deletion events with mutation rates up to more than 10,000-fold the single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation rate, whereas AMY2B gene duplications share a single origin. Using a pangenome-based approach, we infer structural haplotypes across thousands of humans identifying extensively duplicated haplotypes at higher frequency in modern agricultural populations. Leveraging 533 ancient human genomes, we find that duplication-containing haplotypes (with more gene copies than the ancestral haplotype) have rapidly increased in frequency over the past 12,000 years in West Eurasians, suggestive of positive selection. Together, our study highlights the potential effects of the agricultural revolution on human genomes and the importance of structural variation in human adaptation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07911-1

Purnhagen, K., Ambrogio, Y., Bartsch, D. et al. Author Correction: Options for regulating new genomic techniques for plants in the

European Union. Nat. Plants (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01843-4

EFSA

FEZ Panel (2024): Safety evaluation of the food enzyme carboxypeptdase C from the genetically modified Aspergillus niger strain

PEG. EFSA Journal, 22(10), e9038. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2024.9038

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2024.9038