Source: Interesting Engineering

The company’s poplar could absorb over 50% more carbon than a normal tree. Is old-fashioned photosynthesis up to the task of managing the enormous amount of carbon (roughly 36 billion tons per year) that we’re pumping into the atmosphere?

A biotechnology startup in California doesn’t think so. That’s why researchers at Living Carbon have been hard at work manipulating arboreal DNA to make a new type of tree that more effectively captures atmospheric carbon and holds onto it for a very, very long time. And they’ve made a lot of progress.

Source: Stuff

Research into genetically modified (GM) technologies that could deliver environmental benefits needs to be reconsidered by regulators, the farming sector and consumers, the New Zealand Productivity Commission.

A recent report from the commission, titled Reaching for the Frontier, said research of GM technologies was an important pathway to innovation in the primary industry and offered new opportunities to respond to climate risks, biosecurity threats and could also boost farm productivity.

“Gene-editing technologies can be used to improve plant traits such as drought tolerance, disease resistance, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in grazed animals, and animal traits such as increased disease resistance,” the report said.

GM organisms and technologies are regulated by New Zealand’s Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. The purpose of the act was to protect the environment and communities by preventing or managing the adverse effects of hazardous substances and new organisms.

Source: Genetic Literacy Project – 28 March 2022

Great Britain has already decided to take the first steps, as has Switzerland: dealing with simple genome-edited plants will be made easier. The strict genetic engineering laws should no longer be the sole benchmark.

The EU is also working on a reform. What it should look like is unclear, but it is already highly controversial – and it will take years. Many countries on all continents have long since made progress.

Source: Alliance for Science – 29 March 2022

Though the technology behind genetic modification has been around since the 1980s, the lineup of genetically modified (GM) food animals has been limited to just one fast-growing fish and a hypoallergenic pig.

This month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the first GM bovines — two slick-coated, heat-tolerant cows — a nod. The news met little fanfare, though the regulatory process that Recombinetics pursued for the gene-edited animals was streamlined compared to what the pioneering salmon and pig went through.

…What allowed them to stampede their way through review, while the salmon treaded water? The answer is simple and logical. The gene required to give cows a slick coat came entirely from other cows and could have been introduced via breeding — albeit much, much, much more slowly.