The challenges of delivering genetically modified crops with nutritional enhancement traits

First author: Johnathan A. Napier; Affiliations: Rothamsted Research (英国洛桑试验站): Harpenden, UK

Corresponding author: Johnathan A. Napier

The potential for using genetic modification (GM) to enhance the nutritional composition of crops (for either direct human consumption or as animal feed) has been recognized since the dawn of the GM era, with such ‘output’ traits being considered as distinct, if not potentially superior, to ‘input’ traits such as herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. However, while input traits have successfully been used and now form the basis of GM agriculture, output trait GM crops are still lagging behind after 20 years. This is despite the demonstrable benefits that some nutritionally enhanced crops would bring and the proven value of GM technologies. This Review considers the present state of nutritional enhancement through GM, highlighting two high-profile examples of nutritional enhancement—Golden Rice and omega-3 fish oil crops—systematically evaluating the progress, problems and pitfalls associated with the development of these traits. This includes not just the underlying metabolic engineering, but also the requirements to demonstrate efficacy and field performance of the crops and consideration of regulatory, intellectual property and consumer acceptance issues.

自从遗传修饰领域开展以来，人们就认识到了遗传修饰在增强作物的营养成分，用于人类消费或是动物饲料方面的强大潜力，这些“输出”性状被认为明显不同于如除草剂抗性和抗虫性等“导入”性状。然而，当导入性状已经被成功应用后，现已成为GM农业的基础，输出性状GM作物仍然滞后大约20年左右。尽管一些营养增强型作物已经被证实确实能够带来明显的好处以及GM技术存在其价值。本文综述了如今营养增强型作物的现状，重点讨论了两个高知名度的例子：黄金大米和omega-3鱼油作物，系统性评估了这些性状开发过程中的进程、问题以及存在的一些隐患。这不仅仅包括代谢工程学，同时还有对证明这些作物的功效和田间表现的需求，以及对监管、知识产权和消费者接受问题的思考。

通讯：Johnathan A. Napier (https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/our-people/johnathan-napier)

个人简介：1984年，英国诺丁汉大学，学士；1990年，英国伦敦大学，博士；2006年，英国诺丁汉大学，博士。

研究方向：作物转基因。

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0430-z

Journal: Nature Plants

Published date: June 03, 2019