Abstract
Precision genetics and breeding have the potential to meet the agricultural needs and goals of the world in the 21st century. These needs include increasing the efficiency of production of animals and improving their products with minimal impact on the environment. The USA is the major innovator in genomic science and the acknowledged leader in formulating policies to regulate genetic applications in medicine and agriculture. However, governments worldwide have been exceedingly reluctant to support the introduction of genetically modified (GM) animals into agriculture. Regulatory policies have stagnated due to legal guidelines that could not anticipate the needs and solutions that are evident today. This must change if we are to maintain planetary integrity. I propose a new, market-based regulatory model for GM livestock that has both a strong scientific foundation and has worked for 10000 years. The model is similar to that for information technology in which specific algorithms drive computer and cell phone applications. Genome engineers write genetic algorithms that drive the traits in biological organisms. Accordingly, GM products should be viewed in terms of their use and public benefit rather than by limitations to the genetic programing coming from a few highly vocal groups. Genetic algorithms (Genapps) of the 21st century will include not only introduction of synthetic genes, but also complete natural and synthetic biochemical pathways to produce agricultural products that are maximally efficient, healthy to humans and animals, and sustainable in an era of changing climates while avoiding environmental degradation.
Highlights
All enduring entities such as buildings, countries and belief systems are based on solid foundations
Borlaug predicted that biotechnology and genetic engineering would be the basis for a second Green Revolution[1,4] that would be needed to double the world’s food supply by 2050 from that in 2009[5,6]
We found that there are major differences in the way genetic information is regulated and processed in bacteria compared to plants and animals, analogous to the differences in information processing in Apple versus MS Windows computers
Summary
All enduring entities such as buildings, countries and belief systems are based on solid foundations. The Green Revolution was based on blindly mixing thousands of alleles of unknown genes with each other, planting the seeds without any regulation, taking what emerged, and looking for increases in crop yields in diverse environments without any thought to genetic details. This worked until the Green Revolution began falling behind what is necessary to adequately feed the world (Fig. 1(b))[2,3]. Genome engineering of crops and animals can contribute to solving anticipated world hunger and environmental degradation[11,13,14,15,16,17,18] This is unlikely due to current regulations of genetically modified (GM) agricultural products that were enacted decades ago. There are discussions to revise regulations on GM agricultural products in the USA[34,35,36,37,38,39] and several other countries[40,41]
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