Cisgenesis: A Promising Alternative Crop Improvement Technology for Biodiversity, Environment and Ecosystem Risks Associated with Transgenics

Abstract

AbstractThe acreage under genetically modified (GM) crops worldwide has continued to increase from 67.7 million hectares in 2003 to 190.4 million hectares in 2019. Despite the increase in acreage of transgenic (GM) crops, the debate over the alleged potential health and environmental risks has continued unabated over the past two decades. Various scientific groups including Conservation biologists and ecologists have emphasized the need for extensive and comprehensive studies to be undertaken on the environmental benefits and risks associated with any transgenic crop and discourage any such release where the scientific knowledge about possible risks is clearly inadequate. The studies recommended are not only difficult and time consuming but may be very expensive as well to conduct. This presents unique challenges to the proliferation and any extensive use of transgenics to benefit agriculture and humanity. Recent advances in molecular biology and other new plant breeding technologies may, however, come to the rescue. Cisgenesis is genetic transformation to move beneficial alleles from crossable species into recipient plant individuals. Just like in traditional breeding, the donor genes transferred by cisgenesis are similar. Cisgenesis accrues an advantage over conventional breeding in that it can circumvent linkage drag, while still being able to enhance the use of existing gene alleles. This method brings together traditional breeding techniques with modern genetic engineering. This then fast tracks the breeding process. This process enables plant genomes to be altered while remaining plants within the gene pool. Plants arising from this transformation are called cisgenics. Cisgenics are thus very different from transgenics. Cisgenics may therefore not have the potential adverse risks on biodiversity, environment and ecosystems as may be the case with transgenics. This new technology in crop improvement may be acceptable in developing countries where transgenics and their regulations have faced huge challenges, and this may continue in the future. Most GM crops that have been commercialized to date were developed primarily for large scale farming systems and would, arguably not impart the same scale of benefits to small scale and subsistence farmers, typical of developing countries. The Cisgenics approach may be beneficial to small holder farmers due to ease of accessibility and acceptance of the technology, that is, cisgenics is the closest to conventional breeding. The present chapter discusses the risks associated with transgenics, the possible advantages of cisgenics, especially for small scale farmers and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) experience on the commercialization of transgenics. Overall, we see cisgenesis as a promising alternative crop improvement technology to counteract the risks associated with transgenics on biodiversity, environment, and ecosystem. We conclude that the differences between transgenics and cisgenics call for a different approach in designing biosafety regulations since there may be very little environmental and health risks to talk about in cisgenics.KeywordCisgenesisIntragenesisTransgenesisGenetic ModifiedBiodiversityEnvironmental risks