Page 15 - Breeding Edge ebook
P. 15
By Ed Maixner
Animal and plant breeders are trying out a set of powerful new tools which have the potential to
revolutionize agricultural practices and provide consumers with more healthy and safe food options.
Their new toolbox is called gene editing, and the instruments in
it have strange-looking names: endonucleases, for example,
which are enzymes that breeders can use to sever selected DNA
proteins on an organism’s chromosomes, allowing the breeder
to make changes at the DNA break points, and thus alter the
organism’s genetic makeup.
“We use the term ‘gene editing’ rather loosely” in the world
of science, said Bernice Slutsky, senior vice president for the
American Seed Trade Association. At its core, gene editing
is “plant breeding innovation,” she said. Plant breeders
have always used a range of tools – a toolbox of different
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