Genome Editing in Agricultural Biotechnology

Genome editing with engineered nucleases represents a specific and efficient tool to generate useful novel phenotypes in crops with an economic interest by base additions, deletions, gene replacement or transgene insertion. These techniques generate phenotypic variation in plants that can be indistinguishable from those obtained through natural means or conventional mutagenesis. The rapid development of these new techniques of plant breeding leads to several issues concerning the regulatory status of plants edited by engineered nucleases. This chapter aims at providing some keys to answer these issues. The intellectual property and legislation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in several countries including European Union and major countries such as the USA, China, Brazil, Argentina and India are discussed. A scientific description of these new editing techniques and of recently edited plants is included. From a technical point of view, edited plants should only be considered as GMOs in the current EU legislation of GMO in the case of transgene insertion, while the best regulatory issue might be a product-based approach.