The Dangers of Spray-on Gene Editing.

Am I the only one who can see the potentials for abuse with this latest development? What used to take years of selective breeding, may now be as simple as spritzing DNA inoculated nanoparticles on to leaves to alter a plant’s genetic makeup.

Heather Whitney and her colleagues at Bristol University, UK, have trialed this technique in the laboratory using maize, wheat, barley, and a few other crop varieties. In the experiments, they used a hand-held mister to deliver minuscule particles called carbon dots, that carried their desired DNA fragments.

Cropduster — source — Pixabay

For their first round of tests, they inserted code to make the plants glow under UV lamps by including a DNA sequence for a fluorescent protein. This, they found, was a temporary situation. Without additional applications, the effects wore off.

Their second round of trials were more ambitious. This time, they added the CRISPR mechanisms to the nanodots, to permanently alter the genome of the cells in the leaves. CRISPR is the method by which new genetic material is introduced into a cell via a modified microbe, such as a bacterium or virus. The mechanism can be used to trigger different proteins or silence the production of others.

This spraying technique is a drastic leap from the older methods of introduction using an agrobacterium, which often failed to work with some species and…