New Breeding Techniques (NBT), also named ''New Plant Engineering Techniques,'' are a suite of methods that could increase and accelerate the development of new traits in

plant breeding Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce cro ...

. These new techniques, often involve 'genome editing' whose intention is to modify DNA at specific locations within the plants'

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s so that new traits and properties are produced in crop plants. An ongoing discussion in many countries is as to whether NBTs should be included within the same pre-existing governmental regulations to control

genetic modification Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

Methods involved

New breeding techniques (NBTs) make specific changes within plant DNA in order to change its traits, and these modifications can vary in scale from altering single base, to inserting or removing one or more genes. The various methods of achieving these changes in traits include the following: * Cutting and modifying the genome during the repair process (three tools are used to achieve this:

Zinc finger nuclease Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) are artificial restriction enzymes generated by fusing a zinc finger DNA-binding domain to a DNA-cleavage domain. Zinc finger domains can be engineered to target specific desired DNA sequences and this enables zinc ...

;

TALENs Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) are restriction enzymes that can be engineered to cut specific sequences of DNA. They are made by fusing a TAL effector DNA-binding domain to a DNA cleavage domain (a nuclease which cuts DN ...

, and CRISPR/Cas Tools) * Genome editing to introduce changes to just a few

base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

s (using a technique called 'oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis' (ODM)). * Transferring a gene from an identical or closely related species (

cisgenesis Cisgenesis is a product designation for a category of genetically engineered plants. A variety of classification schemes have been proposed that order genetically modified organisms based on the nature of introduced genotypical changes, rather tha ...

) * Adding in a reshuffled set of regulatory instructions from same species (intragenesis) * Deploying processes that alter gene activity without altering the DNA itself (

epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...

methods) *

Grafting Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

of unaltered plant onto a genetically modified rootstock

Potential benefits and disbenefits

Many European environmental organisations came together in 2016 to jointly express serious concerns over new breeding techniques.

Regulation

OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has its own 'Working Group on Harmonization of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology' but, as at 2015, there had been virtually no progress in addressing issues around NBTs, and this includes many major food-producing countries like Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, China, Japan and India. Despite its huge potential importance for trade and agriculture, as well as potential risks, the majority of food producing countries in the world at that date still had no policies or protocols for regulating or analysing food products derived specifically from new breeding techniques.

South America

Argentina introduced regulations and protocols affecting NBTs. These were in place by 2015 and gave clarity to plant developers at an early stage so they could anticipate whether or not their products were likely to be regarded as GMOs. The protocols conform to the internationally recognised 2003

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement on biosafety as a supplement to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) effective since 2003. The Biosafety Protocol seeks to prote ...

North America

United States

The

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

is responsible for determining whether food products derived from NBTs should be regulated, and this is undertaken on a case-by-case manner under the US

Plant Protection Act The Plant Protection Act (PPA) (part of ) is a US statute relating to plant pests and noxious weeds introduced in 2000. It is currently codified at 7 U.S.C. 7701 ''et seq''. It consolidates related responsibilities that were previously spread ...

. As of 2015 there was no specific policy towards NBTs, although in the summer of that year the White House announced plans to update the U.S. Regulatory Framework for Biotechnology.

Canada

Canada's food regulatory system differs from those of most other countries, and its procedures already accommodate products from any breeding technique, including NBTs. This is because its 1993 'Biotechnology Regulatory Framework' is based upon a concept of regulatory triggering based upon "Plants with Novel Traits". In other words, if a new trait does not exist within normal cultivated plant populations in Canada, then no matter how it was developed, it will trigger the normal regulatory processes and testing.