Bioengineered salmon won't come from US's biggest farm state

 JUNE 10, 2019

by Patrick Whittle

Genetically engineered salmon is heading to store shelves in the U.S., but it won't be coming from the biggest salmon farming state in the country.

Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies has said American supermarkets could begin selling the much-debated fish by the end of next year. Its fish are modified with added genes from other fish to grow about twice as fast as conventional salmon.

The company modifies Atlantic salmon, a species that forms the backbone of the worldwide salmon aquaculture industry. Maine is the biggest producer of conventional Atlantic salmon in the U.S., sometimes producing more than 35 million pounds (15.9 million kilograms) of salmon per year, and its industry is poised to grow. Two new major salmon farms are in the approvals process in the state.

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First genetically engineered coral created to help save reefs from climate change

New technique holds promise for understanding genes that protect corals from rising temperatures

Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 

The Independent Online

Genetically engineered coral has been created by a team at America’s prestigious Stanford University, in a project they hope will serve as a “blueprint” for future coral conservation.

For the first time, researchers were able to apply a unique tool called CRISPR-Cas9 to edit coral genes. 

In the future they hope to identify genes involved in coral survival, especially those that help them tolerate the rising temperatures that have led to catastrophic reef “die-offs”.

While scientists have emphasised that genetically enhanced “super-corals” are still a long way from becoming reality, this work is still thought to hold great promise for coral protection.

“We hope that future experiments using CRISPR-Cas9 will help us develop a better understanding of basic coral biology that we then can apply to predict – and perhaps ameliorate – what’s going to happen in the future due to a changing climate,” explained Dr Phillip Cleve, a geneticist and the lead author of the new study.

CRISPR-Cas9 has become the biologist’s go-to gene-editing tool in recent years, but it has proved difficult to apply it to corals due to the way they reproduce.

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Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to save crops

Research shows that releasing moths which only produce male offspring causes population crashes

Genetically engineered moths could be released into the British countryside 

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

1:00AM BST 16 Jul 2015

Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to prevent devastating damage to broccoli and kale crops, scientists have claimed.

Researchers from Oxford University spinoff Oxitec, have tweaked the genes of the insects so that they only produce male offspring.

Tests in greenhouses have shown that releasing GM diamondback or cabbage moths causes populations to crash quickly, limiting damage from caterpillars. New results show that levels had been controlled within just eight weeks.

Now scientists are set to carry out new outdoor trials in New York State after gaining approval from the US Department of Agriculture.

“This research is opening new doors for the future of farming with pest control methods that are non-toxic and pesticide-free,” said Dr Neil Morrison, lead Research Scientist at Oxitec.

“We all share an interest in safe and environmentally friendly pest control, so this is a very promising tool that could be put to good use by farmers as part of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for healthy and sustainable agriculture.”

The self-limiting gene technique has already been trialled against dengue fever-carrying mosquitos, successfully reducing their populations by over 90 per cent in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands

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Delays in approving genetically engineered salmon may be a taste of worse to come.

30 July 2014

The mood at AquaBounty Technologies a year ago was buoyant. Regulators had released a draft assessment of the company’s genetically engineered salmon, which grow faster than normal, and found them to be environmentally benign. A few months after the assessment’s comment period closed, the company began to raise more than 6,000 kilograms of salmon at its facility in Panama, in anticipation of the final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would open the gates and allow the fish onto supermarket shelves.

That optimism now lies buried alongside the fish, which were culled when the approval failed to come through. The FDA says that it is still processing the more than 35,000 public comments made in response to the draft assessment. But for AquaBounty, based in Maynard, Massachusetts, this is just the latest in a series of delays spanning nearly 20 years (see Nature 497, 17–18; 2013). Many of the FDA’s deliberations have taken place behind closed doors, fuelling confusion as to the cause of the setbacks, and rumours of political interference.

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The mystery of spring is solved

The question of how plants know when to ‘wake up’ after winter is one of the great mysteries of nature, but now scientists have identified the ‘spring gene’ that tells daffodils and other flowers when to bloom.


The discovery, published in Nature, means that it will be possible to genetically engineer plants in the future so that they can be 'switched on' earlier, in order to take better advantage of the growing season.


It also means that species in danger from global warming could be engineered so they are better able to cope with climate change.
It has long been known that the buds will begin to burst as the days get longer and the temperatures warm.


However it was a mystery why each plant responds differently to the signals of spring.


For example daffodils tend to come out as long as it is warm - even if it is as early as December.


But other plants like buttercups or anemones will wait until the days are longer.


Dr Phil Wigge, a biologist at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, explained that some plants are genetically made up to respond to temperature, while others respond to light.


His research, funded by the Government, managed to isolate the temperature control gene known as PIF4 or the ‘spring gene’.


“Our findings explain at the molecular level what we observe in our gardens as the warmer temperatures of spring arrive,” he said.


“It also explains why plants are flowering earlier as a result of climate change.”


Read more:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9155900/The-mystery-of-spring-is-solved.html