The Guardian 

Scientists have submitted Australia’s first genetically modified fruit – a Cavendish banana – to regulators for approval, saying it has been engineered to withstand a deadly fungus that poses a threat to banana growers worldwide. The banana, known as QCAV-4, has been genetically modified to resist a fungus known as Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4), which is threatening the multibillion-dollar Cavendish industry globally. If approved, the banana would become Australia’s first GM fruit to be approved for cultivation and consumption, as well as the first GM banana to be approved worldwide.

See also:

Receipt of licence application from Queensland University of Technology for commercial release of genetically modified banana plants

The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator 

Murdoch University

Researchers from around the world will meet in Canberra later this month for a conference showcasing the latest scientific advances in gene-editing technologies and research on gene-edited crops. Organised by Murdoch University, the conference, Gene-edited crops: enabling future commercialisation and trade, will run from 26-27 April at the Shine Dome in Canberra. The conference is open to researchers, farming bodies, research and development corporations, diplomats, international organisations and more, with leading speakers from universities, the grain and horticultural industries, CSIRO, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), with presenters from north and south America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

CSIRO

The CSIRO has embarked on an ambitious new project to unravel the genetic blueprints of Australia’s top pest and invasive species to better enable their management or eradication.  The Australian Pest Genome Partnership (APGP) will generate the genomic data of hundreds of pests and weeds and make it freely available, along with digital solutions to help analyse the data. The data will assist researchers working on pest and weed species and underpin next generation species-specific solutions.

Ag Daily

Two more genetically engineered plants have passed a Regulatory Status Review [in the USA]…The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently completed the review…[the finding means] from a plant pest risk perspective, these plants may be safely grown and used in breeding in the United States. Teff is an ancient grain grown widely in northeast Africa because of its drought tolerance and climate adaptability. An iron- and protein-rich food source, productivity is limited because of its tendency to fall over, preventing proper ripening. The teff plant from the Donald Danforth Center was modified to produce shorter (semi-dwarf) plants and reduce the likelihood of lodging, or stem buckling. Moolec Science’s safflower plant was modified to produce gamma-linolenic acid, an essential omega-6 fatty acid in seeds to alter their nutritional value. Although GLA is common in plant seeds, Moolec intends to continue modifying plants to produce animal proteins using animal genes within plants. 

Biotech Updates, ISAAA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its second pre-market consultation for human food made from cultured animal cells. California-based GOOD Meat, a division of Eat Just, Inc., uses animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make cultured animal cell food…The United States joins Singapore as a global leader in creating a regulatory pathway to market for real, safe, and high-quality meat produced directly from animal cells. GOOD Meat won several regulatory approvals for its chicken in Singapore in 2020, 2021, and 2023, and is the only cultivated meat producer in the world with the ability to sell to consumers.

Reuters

Brazil has approved the cultivation and sale of drought-tolerant GM wheat, a major boost for the once taboo crop as global food supply fears and regional dry weather burnishes the lure of GMO. The approval, which biosecurity agency CTNbio posted, makes Brazil the second nation after Argentina to approve Bioceres’ HB4 wheat strain for cultivation. Other markets have approved it for consumption… While the green-light does not mean Brazil will necessarily grow GMO wheat for production soon, it reflects a major shift in attitudes as climate change and the war in Ukraine sharpen worries over a global food crisis.

01 March 2023 – ISAAA Crop Biotech Update

Researchers from the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) have successfully shown that iron treatment helps increase the resistance against rice blast fungus and activate the plant’s immune response against the pathogen.

A study published in the Rice journal led by Blanca San Segundo, a researcher at CRAG, reveals that exposing rice plants to moderately high levels of iron increases resistance to infection by the pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, the agent causing rice blast, the most common disease in rice responsible for large production losses worldwide.

Source: ISAAA – 08 February 2023

ISAAA Inc., in partnership with the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries Biotechnology Program and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research and Agriculture (SEARCA), released a policy brief on Modern Animal Biotechnology: Benefits, Future Directions, and Policy Recommendations which provides a summary of genetically engineered animals and research on genome-edited animals conducted in various institutions worldwide.

The brief recommends a science-based regulatory framework specifically designed for GM animals and a separate regulatory process for genome-edited animals. 

Source: University of Queensland – 02 February 2023
30 years of research at The University of Queensland and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has culminated in gene discoveries that allow breeders to better protect cereal crops from water scarcity.

The discoveries culminated in key findings made by the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project Cereal blueprints for a water-limited world, led by Professor Andrew Borrell in collaboration with researchers from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) and DAF.

Researchers spent decades investigating a trait known as stay-green, where some sorghum lines maintained green leaves for longer under dry conditions, leading to higher grain yield. 

“We have now uncovered genetic clues that allow a major step change in our ability to breed for drought adaptation,” Professor Borrell said.

Source: New Scientist – 30 January 2023

A US start-up will soon begin planting genetically engineered trees in Georgia and Pennsylvania that may be able to capture more carbon than regular trees. Trees genetically engineered to grow faster and bigger will be planted on private land in Georgia and Pennsylvania by US firm Living Carbon starting early February.

The company says its modified poplar and loblolly pine trees can capture more carbon than unmodified trees, but hasn’t yet demonstrated this outside a laboratory setting.

Source: Murdoch University – 03 February 2023

The collaboration between the Western Crop Genetics Alliance, University of Tasmania and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science offers a new opportunity for developing barley varieties that can adapt to modern farming conditions.

The researchers have discovered a new semidwarf gene and developed diagnostic molecular markers to support faster breeding of varieties which carry desirable traits such as enhanced early emergence characteristics with deep seeding.

Source: Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA – 11 January 2023

The Department of Agriculture Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has announced that more than 100 tons of fresh paddy of beta carotene-enriched Malusog Rice (Golden Rice) have been harvested in 17 pioneer production sites across the country. 

This first harvest will be milled for distribution in target households in selected provinces in the country with preschool children at-risk for vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and undernutrition, as well as pregnant and lactating mothers.

Source: Food Ingredients First – 16 January 2023

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have discovered that genetically engineered rice with fewer stomata has better salt tolerance, allowing it to be grown in places it would otherwise fail. The findings have been published in the New Phytologist.

As concluded by the researchers, rice can be adapted to survive in environments that are becoming harsher due to climate change, which will help in tackling food insecurity around the globe.

Source: Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News – 12 January 2023

Genetically engineered plants are sprouting up to restore the carbon cycle and prevent the further buildup of carbon dioxide. There is a push to use CRISPR to make agricultural technologies that pull carbon dioxide (CO₂) out of the air and store it better in the soil. With the help of CRISPR technology, scientists are making gene edited plant varieties that are better at storing carbon and don’t have the traits of GMOs that are made with transgenes.

Many research projects have sprung up… For example, carbon sequestration research is being conducted at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), an organization founded by Nobel laureate Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD. In June 2022, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $11 million to the IGI to help scientists find ways to protect or heal the ecosystem from harm caused by humans.

Source: Food Ingredients First – 14 December 2022

For the first time in history, scientists have genetically engineered a hen that lays eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The “Golda hen” was bred from a special technology that transfers a biological trait through sex chromosomes, which prevents the development of male embryos.

In addition to reducing the many resources needed for hatching chicks, the costs of sorting and culling the day-old male chicks – which are considered an “unnecessary by-product” in the edible egg industry – will be reduced by almost half, the researchers behind the technology note.

The new advancement for farmed poultry has drawn support from UK animal welfare group, Compassion in World Farming.

The innovation is a result of the collaboration between the Huminn Company (formerly NRS) and the Volcanic Institute, an Israeli agri-food research hub.

“The scale of the egg-laying market in the world is estimated at about 7 billion laying hens, and for each hen a male chick is destroyed,” Dr. Yuval Cinnamon, founder and chief scientific officer at the Huminn Company.