Gene-edited soya beans show promise in UK trial

Soya beans could one day be grown commercially in Britain after a gene-edited crop produced a healthy harvest in a trial in Warwickshire.

Soya is used as feed for animals such as cattle and chickens, but the UK relies heavily on imports because the cooler British climate means it is difficult to grow the crop.

However, the Warwickshire trial, carried out by US company Corteva, has indicated that soya could be grown in the West Midlands.

Researchers have removed a gene which suppresses early flowering, giving the plants more time to mature and produce beans before the end of the growing season.

Dr Frank Röber, Corteva's Europe Breeding Alliance lead, said the aim was "to move later varieties with higher performance into lower maturity groups", which he said was beneficial for farmers.

The genetic change could be achieved through plant breeding, but gene-editing can achieve results much more quickly.

Dr Nancy Podevin, Corteva's genome-editing policy lead, said: "This sometimes frightens people saying, 'are you going fast, are you cutting corners'. We're not cutting corners, we're just being more efficient."

A successful UK soya crop could reduce the need to import soya for animal feed while giving farmers another crop to grow.

In the Warwickshire trial, the gene-edited plants are being grown alongside conventional varieties.

While the standard plants have produced relatively small beans, the modified crop has developed much more strongly and is now beginning to turn yellow, a key stage as the plants direct their energy towards producing beans.

Prof Eric Holub, from the University of Warwick said: "It's putting all of the energy it's been putting into green leaves in the summer and it's now converting it into seeds. To see a line that's actually doing that in the conditions here is really exciting."

The technology differs from the genetically modified crops that caused controversy in the 1990s.

Genetically modified crops were often engineered by introducing genes from other organisms to give plants characteristics like resistance to herbicides or greater tolerance to cold. The latest technology is instead known as gene-editing.

Researchers are also examining whether warmer temperatures caused by climate change could make the UK more suitable for crops like soya.

But there are questions over the future regulation of gene-edited crops.

The trial is being conducted in Britain rather than elsewhere in Europe, partly because the UK's post-Brexit rules have taken a more permissive approach to certain forms of gene editing.

A closer alignment between UK and European rules could affect how gene-edited crops are developed in Britain.

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