The second-largest seed company in the world, DuPont Pioneer, announced development of a new strain of waxy corn using CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technology. It would be DuPont’s first commercial crop that is the fruit of the technology and could be offered for sale to U.S. farmers within five years, pending field trials and regulatory review.
“This is just the beginning,” said Neal Gutterson, vice president of research for DuPont Pioneer, based in Johnston, Iowa. Dupont said CRISPR “has applicability for all Pioneer crops of interest.”
The USDA sent DuPont a letter saying the waxy corn variety is exempt from regulatory review under plant protection laws, the forum for deciding if GMO crops are safe for cultivation and consumption. It was the latest in a series of CRISPR plants deemed to fall outside of USDA regulation. DuPont’s announcement came a few days after USDA said it wouldn’t review a white button mushroom developed with CRISPR to resist browning. The journal Nature said the mushroom was “one of about 30 genetically modified organisms to side-step the USDA regulatory system in the past five years.”
Waxy corn contains a higher level of starch than regular yellow dent field corn and fills a niche market for uses that include processed foods, adhesives and high-gloss paper. DuPont says about 500,000 acres of waxy corn are grown annually in the United States, a fraction of corn plantings that typically exceed 90 million acres. Waxy corn has lower yields per acre but sells at a premium price because of its higher starch content. Sales are usually made under contract with processors and growers take steps to assure they deliver the specialized grain.
“Starting with an identity-preserved product as our initial CRISPR-Cas offering allows us to lay the foundation for success of future lager-volume products from this plant breeding innovation,” said Gutterson.
DuPont said it is the largest vendor of waxy corn seed in the world. The company sells a wide variety of seeds in 90 countries.
“DuPont is using CRISPR to make drought-tolerant corn as well as wheat genetically altered so it will breed like a hybrid, rather than self-pollinate as it typically does. Hybrid plants are vigorous and yields can jump by 10 or 15 percent,” said MIT Technology Review last October. “A growing list of plant types have already been genetically engineered with CRISPR-Cas9 in academic laboratories, including soybeans, rice, and potatoes.”
MIT Technology Review also said, “DuPont says it is already growing corn and wheat plants edited with CRISPR in greenhouses and that field trials will start next spring.”