Agri-biotech: the first field tests of Tea rice start in Pavia

The witch hunt against old GMOs will soon be a distant memory (perhaps). And after more than twenty years of blocks, a new generation of biotech (but not transgenic) plants will take its first steps in Italy. With the last and definitive green light from the Ministry of the Environment, experimental sowing in the open field of a variety of rice obtained thanks to to the new genomic techniques, known in Italy as Tea, assisted evolution techniques.

It is a rice capable of resisting attacks by the fungus without the use of fungicides Pyricularia oryzae which causes the disease commonly known as “brusone”, the most serious fungal disease of rice which in some years can lead to production losses of up to 50%. The application for authorization for the tests was presented by the University of Milan, where the first research group in the country coordinated by the biotechnologist Vittoria Brambillatook advantage of the possibility offered by the drought decree of last June, which temporarily simplified the rules for field trials of plants developed with genome editing or cisgenesis, in derogation of the EU legislation on old GMOs, which awaits to be redesigned , to open precisely at Tea.

Teas are precision procedures, which allow modifications of the plant genome without the insertion of foreign DNA, with a sequence or combination of sequences of the same or closely related species. The rice variety that will be tested in the open air in the Pavia area was obtained through site-directed mutagenesis, with the now well-known CRISPR/cas9 technology which produced the inactivation of three genes responsible for susceptibility to brusone. Laboratory tests using resistance tests have given excellent results in terms of productivity and without the administration of agrochemicals.

The actual field experimentation will be conducted on a farm near Pavia, within a 28 square meter plot, inserted in a 400 square meter field, to guarantee a buffer zone that eliminates the risk of cross-pollination . Sowing is expected to start at the beginning of April. «These plants are completely identical – explains geneticist Vittoria Brambilla – to normal rice plants, they are only missing small pieces of DNA and this makes them resistant to brusone attacks. So far we have tested them in the laboratory, in a growth chamber and they have given good results, we still don’t know what will happen in the field. We have a limited window for this campaign only. The ideal would be to carry out experiments in several years. We were the first but I am sure that many colleagues will follow and I hope that these new genetic tools can develop useful plants for farmers in a short time and compatible with their requests”.

The difficulties linked to climate change have accelerated the transition from a context hostile to biotech research in agriculture to a more favorable framework. But there is still a long way to go. «Europe still forces us to use pioneering methods – explains the Lombardy regional councilor for agriculture Alessandro Beduschi – with almost medieval rites, with barriers around the experimental field, video surveillance. As if it were witchcraft. Our vision is much broader and we would like these Tea plants in the field to be able to replace agrochemicals, as Europe asks us to do, which however does not offer real alternatives to farmers”.