Plant and Animal Gene Editing

Innovation Strategy 1. Resilient Farms Technological Strategic Basic Genetics 2019 Closed

Code:

ATN/RF-16338-RG-4

Initiative:

Seed fund

FONTAGRO Amount:

USD 30.000

Counterpart Amount:

USD 80.642

Execution time

12 Months

Total Amount:

USD 110.642

Participating countries:

Colombia

Argentina

Chile

Ecuador

Uruguay

Funding source:

FONTAGRO Amount 27% Other agencies 0% Counterpart Amount 73%

Executive Summary

VIEW WORKSHOP REPORT

During the 22nd annual meeting of the FONTARGO (Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology) board of directors, held on the 4th and 5th of October, 2018, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a need for a regional platform for genome editing in the agricultural sector was expressed. As a result, an initiative on gene editing was proposed to strengthen programs of plant and animal genetic improvement and to collaborate through a regional platform. It was further decided to hold a workshop titled "Gene editing in crops and livestock for Latin America and the Caribbean -Seed fund – Fontagro” in Colombia. The goals of this workshop were to present and illustrate state of the art technologies and approaches in genome editing in food crops and animals and to propose collaborative future projects. Since then, two work groups have been analyzing the feasibility of building a regional platform to strengthen the capacity of genetic research in the region.

The workshop, organized by AGROSAVIA, was conducted in Bogota, Colombia, from October 16th to 18th, 2019. Expert speakers from 7 countries gave talks on current projects on gene editing. Likewise, the participating agents of FONTARGO (Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina) presented briefs on how their individual programs were improving. A discussion was held after these presentations during which two proposals were formulated, one for the Andean region and another for the Cono Sur region.

The main goal of the workshop was to define the final version of the formulated consensual projects for the conformation of a Genome editing platform in crops and livestock for LAC. In addition, during the workshop, experiences and results of research projects carried out in the different countries on genetic improvement of plants and livestock were shared. This included the use of new technologies such as genomic selection, gene editing, and genetic transformation, among others. At the same time, the international experts were invited to share their expertise through oral presentations about the state of regulations for the application of gene editing in agriculture.

The technological solution

The workshop was useful for sharing knowledge and experiences on editing and to formulate two projects on gene editing with the goal of conforming a platform on genome editing to strengthen genetic improvement programs in LAC.

Results

The main goal of the workshop was to define the final version of the formulated consensual proposals for the conformation of a Genome editing platform in crops and livestock for LAC. In addition, during the workshop, experiences and results of research projects carried out in the different countries on genetic improvement of plants and livestock were shared. This included the use of new technologies such as genomic selection, gene editing, and genetic transformation, among others. At the same time, international experts were invited to share their expertise through oral presentations about the state of regulations for the application and regulation of gene editing technology in crops and livestock.

Beneficiaries

The workshop directly benefited 18 representatives from Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.
Indirectly, the workshop benefited 7 assistants other than the representatives of each country.