CRISPR: Is Switzerland ready to embrace gene editing in agriculture?

Sam Falconer, Debut Art / Science Photo Library

Switzerland’s two-decade moratorium on genetically modified crops has made its citizens wary of any attempt to grow such plants, but genetically edited varieties are slowly taking root on Swiss soil.

Just a stone’s throw from a sleepy suburban neighbourhood outside Zurich, barley is being grown under high security. Because this is no ordinary barley – it’s a gene-edited variety that’s pitting science and the need to boost food production against opponents of genetically engineered crops.

The Golden Promise variety is the star of the first ever field trial in Switzerland of a crop whose genes have been edited using CRISPR/Cas9 “genetic scissors” technology. The technique, which won the Nobel Prize in ChemistryExternal link in 2020 for the two scientists who discovered it, allows breeders to delete, add or replace specific genetic information in a plant that’s linked to certain desirable or undesirable traits.

For example, scientists can identify a sequence in a crop’s DNA that makes it susceptible to a particular disease. Using this information, they can create a special RNA (single stranded messengers that carry instructions between DNA and the cellular machinery to make proteins) that can locate this sequence and then attach a DNA-cutting enzyme to it to deactivate the gene that makes the plant vulnerable to that disease.

Using such genetic scissors technology allows more precise manipulation of traits than is possible under conventional plant breeding. It is also quicker: removing an undesirable trait such as disease vulnerability or adding a desirable trait such as drought resistance can be achieved in just a couple of years rather than a decade. 

In the case of the Swiss barley trial, the goal is to disable the CKX2 gene that regulates seed formation using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Japanese researchers have already used this process successfully to increase the yield of rice. Scientists from the Swiss agricultural institute Agroscope, in partnership with the Freie Universität Berlin, are hoping for the same results with barley.

“Compared to conventional breeding you can be very, very precise with this method,” says Roland Peter, head of Agroscope’s Plant Breeding Strategic Research Division. “While we can also induce mutation with currently available plant breeding tools, it is just random. You cannot steer it and here we can, of course, steer it and just affect one gene instead of thousands.”

New frontiers

The barley trial is being closely monitored and not just by scientific eyeballs – the field is protected by an electrified fence and patrolled by a security guard and a sleek Malinois guard dog. The site has existed since 2014 after the Swiss parliament decided the previous year to fund such a facility, and was set up in response to the vandalism of the majority of field plots of a trial of genetically modified wheat in 2008 on the same site.

Swiss regulations treat the trial in the same way as they would a genetically modified crop, even though they are technically not the same. Unlike genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the barley grown here does not contain genes from another species. Whatever traits are introduced via CRISPR technology could theoretically develop in nature, but on a far longer time scale. However, regulation has not yet caught up with the scientific advances.

“We have quite an old gene technology law here in Europe and in Switzerland and this is not adapted for the kind of changes you can make with these genome editing methods. Differentiation [between genome editing and transgenic modification] is really missing here at the moment,” says Peter.

This means that as with genetically modified crops, researchers have to seek approval from the Federal Office for the Environment, a process that can take six months if there are no objections. In addition, containment measures are necessary to ensure that accidental release outside the experimental field does not happen.

The Swiss government’s reluctance to open the genetic engineering floodgates stems from the country’s opposition to genetically modified food. A moratorium was slapped on GMOs following a nationwide vote in 2005 that only allowed exceptions for research. The freeze has been extended several times since then and is currently in force until 2025.

However, in March 2023, the Swiss parliament asked the government to prepare a draft act for consultation with the aim of introducing a risk-based approval system for plants and seeds developed using CRISPR technology. This will give an exemption to the GMO ban, permitting trials of plants that have been subjected to genetic engineering techniques, that do not contain foreign genes and that offer added value for agriculture, the environment and consumers. The draft act is expected to be presented by the government for consultation in the second half of the year, most likely in September.

Among those likely to participate in the consultation process is the Swiss-based Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), one of the world’s leading institutes in organic agriculture. The organisation is concerned about the potential impact of gene editing on organic farming and is putting together its own official position on the issue.

“We see the potential of gene editing to help to reduce the application of synthetic pesticides in the short term for conventional agriculture,” says Monika Messmer, co-Group Lead of Plant Breeding at FiBL. “However, we are afraid that the overpromising of such fast technical fixes bears the great risk that the important and urgently needed transformation towards more sustainable agricultural and food systems will be further postponed.”

There is also disagreement over the claim made by its proponents that gene editing is safe because it produces mutations that are identical to what occurs in nature. Messmer says that modifications are based on genetic engineering, which technically interferes below the cell level and is not a natural process.

One company that would like to see Switzerland catch up is agriculture multinational Syngenta. The Swiss-based company, which was bought by Chinese state-owned group ChemChina in 2017, is applying gene editing to its own hybrid varieties with a focus on row crops such as maize and soybean.

“Genome editing is easier, faster and cheaper than previous genetic modification efforts,” a spokesperson told SWI swissinfo.ch by email. “Syngenta’s proprietary HI-Edit process, for example, allows breeders to modify crops at various stages in the seeds research and development process. This is important as it allows existing breeding programs to respond to changing climate and pest pressures on a shorter timescale.”

In June, Syngenta announced that it was sharing for free the rights to its gene-editing and breeding technologies with academia to boost agricultural innovation, adding to the toolbox available to plant breeders.

“Genome editing is the modern alternative to cross-breeding plants in a way that ordering a meal from Uber Eats is the modern alternative to going out to a restaurant,” the spokesperson said. “The traditional ways are still effective at getting your end result (breeding plants or filling your belly), but new, technology-driven options make these processes easier and more convenient.”

Messmer from FiBL is worried that consumers will not be able to decide whether they prefer the equivalent of Uber Eats or a restaurant meal and that the process of producing food will take a backseat to the safety of the product itself.

“The certification process provides assurance that the apple that’s labelled organic in the shop has followed organic principles in its production and processing as regulated by Switzerland and the European Union,” she says. “Therefore, it is important for farmers and consumers that the breeding process is made transparent and the products are labelled accordingly along the value chain. Only this allows farmers and consumers to make an informed choice of seed and food.”

Edited by Nerys Avery/ts