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A certain number of insects are considered as pests, because they carry diseases or are parasites on crops. There are many ways to combat them : chemical insecticides, pheromone traps, induced sterility, etc.   Several techniques are being developed to induce sterility in an insect. These techniques – radiation mutagenesis, transgenesis, inoculation with the bacterium Wolbachia [1] […]

From March 6 to 8, 2023, the third International Summit on “Human Genome Editing” was held in London at the Francis Crick Institute. It was an opportunity to “discuss the progress, promise and challenges of research, regulation and equitable development of human genome editing technologies and therapies”, as stated in the declaration drawn up by […]

A new episode in the battle over Bayer/Monsanto patents on Roundup-tolerant transgenic soybeans: on February 13, 2023, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled in favor of the soybean producers. A hard blow for the German multinational. On February 13, 2023, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court ordered Bayer to pay back to the soybean growers’ association Aprosoja [1] the […]

Roundup Ready soybeans benefit less from the addition of sulfur than a closely related, but not genetically modified, variety. This kind of pleiotropic effect has been observed and analyzed before. A Brazilian study (involving researchers from Embrapa, the brazilian equivalent of the French public research institute INRAE) compares the agronomic behaviour of two soybean lines […]

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just appointed an executive of the biotechnology company Pairwise. The company will market its first genetically modified food in 2023. Evident conflict of interest or administrative routine? In November 2022, the USDA appointed Haven Baker, business manager and co-founder of Pairwise [1], to its Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory […]

Many States currently reflect on the legal status of GMOs resulting from new genetic modification techniques, and some have already decided. It is not easy to give an exhaustive picture of all the positions and legislation adopted : it is sometimes difficult to have access to national legislation, national positions may be unclear at this stage, […]

Historically, the protection of living organisms through patents has been developed in the United States and Europe. Abandoning a then conservative position, the US Supreme Court validated a patent on a genetically modified (GM) bacterium in 1980 [1]. This institution defined the micro-organism as a « composition of matter », opening up the field of patentability of living […]

For the time being, digital sequence information allows certain stakeholders, including companies, to use digitalized sequences without needing the prior consent of the states and communities connected with this biodiversity. Discussions are underway in order to regulate – or not – practices which contravene the Convention on Biological Diversity. Countries allowing free access to the […]

  What does the expression “genetic resource” really mean ? Of course, the word “genetic” is well-known and refers to the genome of living beings : their DNA or genetic “material”, but is this its present-day meaning ? And what about the addition of the word “resources” ? There is also the mention of the « digitalization of genetic resources” […]