This site was created to make information about CRISPR-Cas applications in agriculture accessible and easier to understand. From the basics of how this technology works to how we at Corteva Agriscience™ are applying it to improve agriculture, this page will provide you with facts about CRISPR-Cas.
If you have questions after exploring the basics, visit our Contact Us section to connect and learn more.
CRISPR-Cas is a breakthrough in biology with the potential for a wide range of applications. For agriculture, it represents a more efficient and targeted way to improve plants and help farmers produce more and better food, with fewer resources.
Based on a natural system, CRISPR-Cas can precisely improve a plant without incorporating DNA from another species. It’s a continuation of what people have been doing since plants were first domesticated – selecting plants for their desired characteristics like higher yields, disease resistance, longer shelf life or better nutrition. It’s one tool that could help keep pace with the growing demand for more sustainable agricultural solutions.
Farmers face real challenges because plants are under constant stress from things like climate change, drought and disease. These challenges, coupled with rapid population growth and changing diets, requires agricultural innovation to keep pace. CRISPR-Cas is a more efficient and targeted means to developing agricultural solutions to these evolving challenges.
CRISPR-Cas functions much like editing text in a word processing application. The CRISPR-Cas system performs a specific search within the plant’s DNA – an organism’s complete set of instructions – to delete, edit or replace target genetic sequences in order to achieve a specific characteristic such as drought resistance, disease tolerance or improved nutritional value.
CRISPR-Cas works with the native characteristics available within the crop without incorporating DNA from another species. It is the process of making targeted and precise changes to the strings of DNA made up of sequences of four nucleobases that comprise genes and other genomic features determining plant characteristics and diversity.
Please read a more detailed overview here, as well as this Ted Talk, “How CRISPR Lets Us Edit Our DNA.”
Global regulatory policies for products of CRISPR-Cas technology are currently under development.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a response to DuPont Pioneer’s “Regulated Article Letter of Inquiry” stating that it does not consider its next generation waxy corn developed with CRISPR-Cas advanced breeding technology as regulated by USDA Biotechnology Regulatory Services.
The current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law requires a label if the food is materially different from its traditional counterpart (for example, if there is a change in the nutritional make-up of the end-product.) The Corteva next generation waxy corn will not be materially different from current commercial waxy corn.
The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law passed in 2016 gives the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) until July 2018 to develop and implement standards for disclosure of bioengineered food and ingredients. Though there are many details of the law that the USDA needs to sort out, next generation waxy corn does not meet the definition of “bioengineered” as written in the law, and would therefore not require disclosure as a bioengineered food.
A plant developed with CRISPR-Cas genome editing technology is different from a GMO because genome editing uses the native genetic sequences and characteristics available within the specific plant.
In addition to genome editing applications, CRISPR-Cas can be used to create GMO products. “GMO” is a term that is commonly and synonymously used for the term “transgenic.” A GMO plant – or transgenic plant – is a plant with genetic material from another organism that has been inserted by genetic engineering techniques.
To learn more about GMOs, please visit GMO Answers.
CRISPR-Cas is one of many tools Corteva uses to develop healthy seeds that help farmers grow more food, with less land and fewer resources. Corteva will continue to provide a variety of seed choices, including those developed from conventional, hybrid, GMO and CRISPR-Cas methods, so that farmers may select the products that best meets the needs of their operations.
Yes. Safety and Health is one of four core values that guide Corteva, and we are committed to ensuring the safety of all the products we bring to market. Agricultural products developed with CRISPR-Cas will be like the ones that we have been producing through conventional plant breeding for generations and will be subject to extensive testing prior to commercialization. As with every technology we apply, we hold ourselves accountable to our core values, to our customers and to consumers.