An Analysis of Global Policies and Regulation on Genome Editing in Plants

This chapter explores the application of gene editing and modification techniques in plant genome editing, to enhance yield, quality, and stress resistance. Conventional plant-breeding techniques have limitations such as being time-consuming and labor-intensive and often result in the mutation of unwanted alleles. Gene editing and gene modification offer more precise and predictable modification in plant genomes, with relatively shorter time and higher accuracy and efficiency. The chapter includes a description of all tools and methods used in gene editing and modification in the plant genome such as Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFN), Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR Cas), Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and synthetic oligonucleotides, by which modification can be easily achieved. The potential advantages of gene editing and modification in agriculture are significant, encompassing higher food production, the creation of crops with improved nutrient profiles, and enhancing crop resilience in challenging environments. But these techniques cause side effects, such as off-target mutation, and crossing with non-GE plants in the environment. This chapter reviews the current policies and regulations followed at a global scale for genome editing of plants so that risk assessment and management can be done and the safe release of these plants in the environment is ensured.