Scientists Use Gene Editing to Make Soybeans More Like Olives

A new gene-edit­ing tech­nique is instill­ing hope among soy­bean farm­ers. Calyxt, a Minneapolis-based startup, promises its mod­i­fi­ca­tions can keep the trans fats out of soy­beans, mak­ing them health­ier like olive oil. However, oppo­nents of GMOs aren’t cel­e­brat­ing.

Soybean oil is high in linoleic acid, which means it goes ran­cid fast. So man­u­fac­tur­ers have long been par­tially hydro­genat­ing their oil to extend shelf life and improve fry­ing capa­bil­ity. Now that leg­is­la­tion has banned the trans fats caused by par­tially hydro­genated oil, soy­bean proces­sors are look­ing for alter­na­tives. This new gene-edit­ing tech­nique means that it will be shelf-sta­ble with­out hav­ing to be hydro­genated.

Calyxt’s new soy­bean vari­ety is higher in oleic acid and lower in linoleic acid and sat­u­rated fatty acids than other soy­bean vari­eties. These vari­a­tions increase shelf life up to five times longer, and increase fry-life three­fold, with no need for hydro­gena­tion. Calyxt hopes to begin com­mer­cial sales in 2018.

Calyxt is using a gene-edit­ing tech­nol­ogy called TALEN to alter sin­gle genes within plants. The three approaches they can use are to insert cor­rect or knock out a gene. The com­pany likens it to using spell check to iden­tify and cor­rect an error in a word. Because gene-edit­ing is so spe­cific and only rearranges rather than adding a for­eign gene to a plants’ exist­ing DNA, the USDA has decided not to reg­u­late it. This enables Calyxt to avoid the usual long waits of the reg­u­la­tory process.

Calyxt presents its tech­nol­ogy as a way to decrease trans fat, aller­gens and toxic com­pounds in foods while increas­ing dietary fibers, nutri­ents, vit­a­min con­tent and plant pro­teins. It also promises farmer-friendly traits, such as increased yield, her­bi­cide tol­er­ance and resis­tance to insects and dis­ease. But Calyx empha­sizes that unlike tra­di­tional GMO devel­op­ment, it’s putting health­ier food needs of the con­sumer above farmer needs. While soy­bean oil is the far­thest along in Calyxt’s devel­op­ment stages, they’re also using the gene-split­ting tech­nique on wheat, pota­toes, alfalfa and canola oil.

The USDA green-lighted the first gene-edited crops in April 2016, start­ing with a mush­room that resists turn­ing brown. But the European Union is slower to accept any kind of GMOs, how­ever allegedly benign. French trade unions and NGOs have argued that gene-edit­ing tools are the first step down a slip­pery slope lead­ing to many new plants with uncer­tain envi­ron­men­tal impacts.

Will the new, health­ier soy­bean oil adversely affect olive pro­duc­ers? Joanne Lacina, pres­i­dent of the online shop Olive Oil Lovers, isn’t wor­ried. ​“I don’t believe soy oil can ever replace olive oil in any sig­nif­i­cant way,” she said. ​“Extra vir­gin olive oil is quite lit­er­ally the fruit juice of an olive. A pro­ducer picks the olives off the tree, imme­di­ately trans­ports them to the mill where they are crushed and the juice is extracted. Two hours later you can be eat­ing fresh oil from the olives you just picked.”

Soy oil, she pointed out, is extracted at high tem­per­a­tures using petro­leum-derived sol­vents, degummed, deodor­ized and bleached. ​“A good extra vir­gin olive oil is so deli­cious you can hap­pily eat it with just bread alone. I have yet to meet some­one who pro­claims they eat soy oil because they love the way it tastes.”

• Technology Review


• Nature