Wired UK – September 2019

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CRISPR-CAS

Creating custom plants

For generations, we’ve manipu-

lated crops to boost nutritional

value, or achieve disease resistance

through chemicals and irradiation.

CRISPR-Cas is a new breeding

technique part-developed at Wagen-

ingen that works within the plant

itself – like a pair of “molecular

scissors”, as Jan Schaart, a plant-

breeding researcher explains.

CRISPR-Cas lets scientists target

a section of the genome with these

molecular scissors, snipping off the

gene in question. The cell’s immune

system mends the break, hopefully

writing in a mutation as it does so,

which may result in a strengthened

or enhanced plant. “It is much faster

and more precise than traditional

breeding,” says Schaart.

Take the potato. Phytophthora,

or blight, has plagued growers for

hundreds of years, perhaps most

infamously in the Irish potato famine.

Using CRISPR-Cas, WUR scientists

can target genes that determine how

susceptible the plant is to blight,

thereby creating resistant mutants.

CRISPR-Cas is also behind

research at WUR into breeding

wheat, barley and rye types

containing only “safe” gluten. The

molecular scissors remove toxic

antigens, known as epitopes, from

certain gluten genes. The result is

a plant that, while not gluten free, is

rendered safe to eat for those with

coeliac disease or gluten intolerance.

Its versatility and simplicity

also means CRISPR-Cas has

great potential for breeding plants

equipped to resist climate change,

Schaart explains: researchers could

identify and target genes to modify,

say, for drought resistance – as long

as they determine exactly what and

where those genes are. “I always say

it is a knowledge-based technique,”

says Schaart. “You need knowledge

about the genes you want to target –

and you have to know what happens

if you knock them out.”

FOOD FRAUD

Pushing back on fakery

Food fraud, like the horsemeat-in-

beef scandal of 2013, costs up to

$40 billion (£32 billion) a year –

but WUR uses a food product’s

biological fingerprint to determine

its origin and authenticity.

The criteria for analysis includes

ubiquity, which means items

consumed by a wide population,

such as olive oil or bananas; a type

of fraud being widespread, such as

dilution of olive oil, substitution of

meat, or counterfeiting (eg, battery

eggs posing as free-range); and

having the technology to separate

adulterated from unadulterated.

With coffee, WUR researchers

have mapped out fingerprints to

distinguish organic from non-or-

ganic. They use proton-transfer-

reaction quadrupole ion time of

flight (PTR-QiTOF) technology, a

form of mass spectrometry that

measures the volatiles (compounds

quick to turn to gas or vapour) by

mass. The PTR-QiTOF equipment

thus “smells” the coffee, detecting

minute quality differences that form

two little clouds of data: organic on

one side, non-organic on the other.

WUR scientists have been devel-

oping a handheld scanner which

uses infrared sensors to compare a

product such as ground beef with a

cloud database. A phone app would

within seconds deliver a profile –

revealing what’s really hiding in

that tangle of meat, and whether

its packaging is telling the truth.

Food focus _

Percentage of global

greenhouse emissions

from agriculture: 11%

Estimated global

population by the year

2050: 10 billion

The challenge: Scaling

down emissions in

the livestock sector

while increasing food

yield through precision

agriculture (robotics,

LEDs) and circular

systems (storing carbon

in soil, rearing insects

on waste). Developing

alternatives to

conventional meat that

can be scaled up

Food focus _

Estimated reduction

of principal fish species

as a result of climate

change: 40%

Estimated increase in

the value of the global

fish oil market from 2018

to 2026: £1.69 billion

The challenge:

Cost-effective

algae cultivation for

sustainable omega-3

fatty acid products

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