On the safety of mutant crops

Hossein Jamali
Sep 3, 2018 · 4 min read

Gene-edited plants should pass strict biosafety regulations, same as what is done for genetically modified (GM) crops. This is the EU’s top court ruling on July 2018 that bewildered many researchers across the world. The rationale behind this, according to the judgement, is that gene or genome editing tools lead to “unintended consequences.”

In spite of genetic engineering of plants with foreign DNA, the gene editing tools enable breeders to precisely manipulate endogenous genes of plants in order to create new traits, or remove undesirable ones. Thus, this cutting-edge tool is…

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