Broadening the GMO risk assessment in the EU for genome editing technologies in agriculture

Environmental Sciences Europe

Table 1 Genome-edited crops with novel traits

Species	Ploidy level	Genome size	Genomic alteration	Target gene(s)	Trait(s)	Technological specification	References
Camelina	Allohexaploid	750 Mbp	Gene dosage, different allelic combinations	Fatty acid desaturase 2 (FAD2)	Altered fatty acid composition	CRISPR/Cas9, SDN-1	[157]
Sugarcane	Allopolyploid	App. 10 Gb	Alteration of 107 out of 109 COMT gene copies/alleles	Caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT)	Altered lignin biosynthesis	TALENs, SDN-1	[192]
Wheat	Allohexaploid	14.5 Gb	Alteration of 35 out of 45 α-gliadin genes/alleles	α-gliadin	Reduced gluten content	CRISPR/Cas9, SDN-1	[168]
Rice	Diploid	430 Mbp	Multiplexing, alteration of 8 different genes	BADH2, Gn1a, QTL, GS3, GW2, Hd1, EP3, LPA1	Increased yield, plant architecture, fragrance, photoperiod	CRISPR/Cas9 SDN-1	[220]
Tomato	Diploid	900 Mbp	Overcoming linkage drag	Truncation of jointless-2 gene	Easier harvesting	CRISPR/Cas9, deletion	[221]

Examples of plants containing novel traits developed by complex interventions in the respective genome, e.g. multiplexing approaches or removal of genomic linkage using genome editing techniques are shown together with ploidy level of the genome-edited plants, the size of their genome, the intended genomic alteration, the target gene(s), the associated trait and genome editing technique
CRISPR/Cas9, Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated 9; Mbp, Mega basepairs; SDN-1, Site-directed nuclease-1; Gb, Giga basepairs; TALENs, Transcription activator-like effector nucleases