Genetically modifying a plant is far from harmless

Inf’OGM provides here in a first series of two papers as an overview of the unintended and uncontrolled effects occurring along the steps of a genetic modification process. We will focus in these first paper on the process of insertion step as quoted by Jean-Christophe Pagès, aiming at bringing into a cell the requisite material to generate the intended genetic modification. We will also focus on preliminary steps which are indeed stressful and thus induce mutations and epigenetic mutations (see the box below).

In a next wave of papers we will focus on the unexpected changes called ‘off-targets’ due to the NBT techniques themselves. Several scientific papers will be rapidly cited to help the reader to go more in depth in the details.

Preparing the cells to be transformed

Before being able to bring some material into the cells (the process of insertion Jean-Christophe Pagès refers to), the first step is to prepare those cells. The lab workers will have to break cells wall, maybe even to remove them entirely. Plant cells without walls – called protoplasts – become transformable and engineers can now bring into those cells tools such as large proteins (such as Cas9), RNAs and/or coding DNAs. But, as Yves Bertheau explains, this creation of protoplasts induces mutations and epimutations, a widely observed phenomenon according to scientific literature [2].

Cell culture induces mutations

The second step is to cultivate those protoplasts. But culturing cells generates also mutations and epigenetic mutations. The scientific literature surprisingly shows that the mechanisms through which those mutations and epigenetic mutations appear is still little-known despite decades of use [3]. This phenomenon, called somaclonal variation, is such that it was previously used by seed companies to create the needed “genetic diversity” to “breed” plants according to the seed companies’ usual language. The French Association for Seeds and Seedlings (GNIS, “a privately funded organization which delivers public services”) points out that “somaclonal variation is the observed modification in some cells after a long cycle of in vitro culture without regeneration. These are therefore no longer identical to the parent plant. This variation can be due to a modification in the nucleus genome or in the genome of cytoplasmic plastids” [4].

In other words, plants obtained from those cells have different characteristics. GNIS provides one last interesting detail : “the obtained modifications of traits are barely stable and not always found in the regenerated plant or its progeny”. Why ? The occurrence of other modifications (epigenetic mutations) can make those mutations disappear [5]… As Yves Bertheau tells us, “in such conditions, it looks rather difficult to foresee the impacts this step of cell culture could perform when using a new technique of genetic modification”.

The process of insertion, at last… also called vectorization

Once the cells are prepared and cultivated, we are ready to bring in the biological material to generate the intended modification. Depending on the techniques, this material may be proteins and / or genetic sequences such as RNAs or encoding DNAs (oligonucleotides, plasmids, virus…) – the most frequently used molecules for plants. Bringing this material into the cells needs merely making large holes in the membranes (cytoplasmic and nuclear) of the cell. But, as Yves Bertheau explains us, making such holes induce once again mutations and epimutations [6]. The researcher considers thus impossible to draw a general grid for risk assessment. A choice must be made among several techniques of insertion, different types of material, the genetic sequences to be introduced and the species targeted. Therefore only a case by case analysis for such GMOs would allow the assessment of all the potential risks linked to unintended effects.

HCB’s scientific committee’s interim report says nothing about those mutations

In a scientific paper of 2011, scientists estimated that 35% of all the observed unintended effects following the genetic modification by transgenesis of Senia rice were due to the cells transformation process itself [7]. The phenomenon is therefore not negligible.

Surprisingly, and despite the hearing of its Head in front of the OPECST, the HCB’s Scientific Committee did not deal with those risks in its interim report on risks linked to the new techniques [8]. If the process of insertion is indeed described in the appendix for each technique, it’s only to outline the tools used for a technique and to describe how the material is brought into the cells. Possible mutations and epimutations arising from the different transformation steps are not covered. As the HCB scientific committee is in charge of risk evaluation for the French government, we would have expected this committee to discuss and provide explanations, not to disregard such documented issues. Especially considering that the transformation process – to refer to the only point present in the interim report – doesn’t seem to be fully controlled depending on the techniques. The scientific committee even states that for the oligodirected mutagenesis technique (OdM), “many molecules or molecular mixtures are currently tested to improve the process of insertion which works fairly well in vitro but not well on full organisms (Liang et al., 2012)” [9]…