E60 Environmental Action

Rice Varieties Understanding Gene Editing & Gene-Edited s   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIa2NFcPXZ4 

And you are all aware that currently this is the biggest uh dispute or point of contention in the Indo US trade deal that is getting negotiated. The US is
trying to shove um untested, unsafe, unwanted, unneeded GM crops onto India and uh Indian government from uh reports that one
reads in the media and hopefully that will be so when we finally get a deal uh happening.

Apparently the Indian government is resisting um this uh push by the US government. You should all remember that for 23 long years, this is probably one of the most successful people's movements in India. For 23 long years, we have managed to keep India GM free after BT cotton got approved for
cultivation in the country. that too uh in a very uh devious fashion.

Youtube transcript   (partly edited)
genome editing - what is genome technology and what are the concerns about it.  the government of India had announced that um uh India is uh ready to release uh two genome edited rice varieties .

 speakers Dr. Kitika Agnya qualified and trained biotechnologist worked with  DST e a very simplified presentation on what is gene editing
followed by Shiao Banerjee who's a organic farmer who's also a biotechnologist by training. 
[Music] coalition for a GM free India
BT cotton approval GMT
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request
or
engagements after one and a half
discussions. Uh
uh Zoom room technical settings participants
mute  um
GM crops resistance
people's movement
activist unientific
anti-science lit anti-development
um in India the narrative that's run by the biotech uh lobby especially
uh with their uh deep pockets uh with the ability to manipulate mass media and
uh garner a lot of publicity is that the ones uh who are resisting GM crops are
only a handful of people these are activists who are anti-science they are
lites they are anti-development coming in the way of this country's progress
that's the kind of narrative that is built but uh I would like you to know that uh you know this is a uh very very
massive people's movement if it were not so if uh we didn't have resistance from
uh you know from a spectrum of political parties from state governments from
agriculture scientists from biotechnologists from the medical fraternity uh from
consumer groups environmental groups and so on and ordinary citizens you know
people who humbly call themselves I'm an ordinary housewife I'm an ordinary uh
entrepreneur and so on everybody has actually
uh put in efforts to understand what is transgenic technology and their
resistance stems from a certain kind of uh knowledge that they have built for
themselves and uh their understanding over the years of what is uh what are GM
crops, what are GM foods and why are they not good for me. So dismissing this
as a handful of people will not work. And you are all aware that currently
this is the biggest uh dispute or point
of contention in the Indo US trade deal that is getting negotiated. The US is
trying to shove um untested, unsafe, unwanted, unneeded
GM crops onto India and uh Indian government from uh reports that one
reads in the media and hopefully that will be so when we finally get a deal uh
happening. Apparently the Indian government is resisting um this uh push by the US
government. You should all remember that for 23 long years, this is probably one
of the most successful people's movements in India. For 23 long years,
we have managed to keep India GM free after BT cotton got approved for
cultivation in the country. that too uh in a very uh devious fashion. That's a
story for another day. [Music]
GM crops of India
and one of the most successful
India or USA trade talks
GM crops
measure
Shivra Singh Johan GM crops
Cautionary statements.
term of the NDA government single
GM crops.
Gene
speakers
differ Singh. Johanis
biotech lobby
India main staple crop
India production
edit
builds
GM crops narratives.
narratives.
Um so the context really is about these two rice varieties that are about to be
released uh for cultivation in farmers fields. Apparently big claims are being
made about uh these genome edited rice varieties. But it's not just rice.
There's a gene edited sheep uh that has been developed. There are geneedited
fish uh that have been developed. And uh please uh try and look at uh the
presentations carefully to check whether the narratives uh that uh you are
listening from uh the progenome editing lobby are not similar to what we've
already heard in the past about GM crops. And finally, please remember that very openly
uh government of India as well as uh the biotech lobby representatives
are saying that because there is resistance against GM crops. We have come up with
the genome edited crops and we have done so after deregulating
two kinds of genome editing applications in India.
resistance.
Genome editing. Genome editing
applications major applications.
to uh bumi this is the background um
sorry that I took this long I'll now invite uh Dr. Kitika to uh start uh her
presentation and I have one more request um my colleague uh Niveita will share
the YouTube uh live streaming link in the chat box while the uh webinar is
underway. Can you take just 20 seconds to uh you know put this out on your
social media handles the live streaming link encouraging people to watch the
live streamed uh video. Uh Niveita may I request you to please uh put that in the
chat box please? Yeah sure we'll do that. Kavita, you need to click on the go live uh link for
the YouTube. The YouTube need to click on the go live uh link.
Oh my god. Yes. Okay. It says it's live streaming.
Um something needs to be changed in the YouTube account because the live link is not working.
Okay. Can you make me the host, I guess?
Yeah. Um, just give me one second.
Hasha, make me a co-host. Ha.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm making
right. Um shall we wait for you to uh fix this uh
hersa uh before I think we should go ahead and we will simultaneously uh do the streaming
thing. Right. Yeah. Uh Dr. Kitika uh I invite you to please
begin your presentation. Thank you.
Pritika, are you there? Kitika got thrown out. Uh, she'll come
back. Oh, okay. Sorry about this. Maybe this is the time that we need to figure out
the live streaming also. or apologies.
Can you just uh check with her? She's joining Kavita.
So Hara as soon as uh she joins please make her a co-host.
Nidita, do you want to call her and check?
I'm on call with to check what happened.
Yes, Anandu, you're right that technologies like this uh do fail us.
And uh when we're talking about any gene technology in our food systems, it's
actually a living technology. Uh which essentially means that um especially in
the uh plant kingdom uh we're talking about the ability of a
genetically modified organism um germinating once you release it into
the environment. That seed germinating, that seed uh flowering and uh the pollen
uh from the flower uh getting spread uh
by uh numerous ways insect pollination, wind pollination, water pollination. Sorry for interrupting. She's back. I
know she's joined. Uh Harsha, please make uh uh Dr. Kitika a co-host.
Uh the fact that uh
that this is uh uh you know that the pollen has the ability to spread uh in
the environment makes it a living technology which is uncontrollable and
irreversible. And uh today we'll hear about how the reversibility
in genome editing is also at a molecular level and not just at a ecosystem level.
Uh Kita, you're a co-host. You can start presenting. Thank you. Sorry. So sorry, some technical glitch.
I got thrown out. Yeah, I'll I'll share my presentation.
So good evening everybody. I'll um try to keep it max um mainly in English and
then uh wherever I I feel it would be um required to say explain it for a little
further in Hindi I shall try and speak in Hindi also. So um I'm trying to actually only uh give you an
introduction of what is gene editing and why we are against it. Um because most
of the most of the people who are part of this uh uh uh know group of people
who are against gene editing there are some of us who are not completely aware of what the technology is and why
exactly should we be against it. So this is just an introduction. Shomik will be giving you a little more uh detailed uh
account of what is uh what is happening specifically with rice varieties. So um
I'm I I will just go through um you know in this um I mean this is going to be
the main um way in which I'll be taking taking you through the presentation. So we'll try and understand what is a
genome first what is a gene? How does it impact functions of a living organism? I
mean how is how does gene and genome impact functions of a living organism? Uh when we say genetic modification what
do we mean by that? How is it done exactly? and what is this crispercast technology specifically and what you
know in context with what is gene editing specifically. So this is going to be the flow of my presentation. So to
understand what is a gene and what is a genome I would uh uh quickly give you a
um 2minut video to look at. So that will give us a perspective about the you know
the world we are looking at the size of size of what we are uh looking at
one second
just a minute okay so uh how many of us are aware of what is a genome is one
thing that uh I wanted to start with. So when we say genome, it is actually
um is the video visible? No, not yet. One second.
Is it visible now? Yes. Something called zoom in on your
genome female. Yeah. Yes. So I've muted the video for us so that I
can uh tell you what is happening here. So we just zooming into uh the human body to see how small a cell is.
So we've gotten into the uh cell liver cell.
If we go into the liver cell, you have something called the nucleus. So just
like we have organs in a in a in a an organism, inside a cell, we have
something called organal where uh there is compartmentalization of functions. So
inside this organal called the nucleus we have our genome. Uh so this is with
respect to the human genome. So in a human genome there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. So this this with this
introduction we'll get back to our presentation.
So we saw how small that world is. If we have to imagine it, uh we are able to
see two lines of our fingerprint that is in the scale of millimeters. Right? So one cell is in the scale of thousand
times lesser than this. a size that is thousand times lesser than two lines of your fingerprint. Inside that cell for
every human uh you know in a human being there are 40 uh 46 chromosomes if you
just attach it end to end you will get 2 m of DNA. So 2 m of DNA gets packed into
something that is such such a small space. So
modification for just understanding that let us try and uh I had to give this example. Now
when we say genome genome is like for example a parliament or a place where
decisions are made. So you have all genes uh so okay first let us understand
what is a genome. Genome it has all information required for that organism
to function. For every function you will have separate genes. For example, let us
take uh uh digestive system. Um you know as soon as we put food inside saliva
gets secreted. Saliva comes from the salivory gland. So saliva has one
particular enzyme salivory amias which will go and cut the food break it into
pieces. So just this example let us take. So salivory gland will have cells
which have all of the 46 chromosomes but it will only turn on that gene which is
required for producing salivary amas for example the rest of the genes are there in it but it'll be turned off. So uh
similarly depending on which cell we are looking at every part of our body will have the whole copy but it'll only
switch on that which is required for its function. So that is how the body works.
Now when when I'm saying it is switching on switching off salivary amias is produced what exactly happens is what is
given in the next uh you know insert. So this is uh something called
transcription and translation. So the the information that is kept inside the DNA is or so let us understand what is
DNA. DNA is deoxyribboucleic acid. DNA is what forms our genome.
So in if you have to say in Hindi genome DNA or DNA has four alphabets. So
four alphabets or her word each word is
a threeletter word. So uh this is how our genome is organized. Now that
information has to get translated to the proteins language that is salivory amus
if you take is a protein. So proteins that will carry out the work.
DNA is the original information original information protein information translate okay it'll come out. So this
can be uh understood with the example that uh the information in the DNA
inside the genome is like your cookbook or recipe book.
So we don't use the same so we don't use a paper to make dal right so the the
information in it has to get translated in the language of the protein. So the ingredients for the protein are taken in
and literally how you would put together some recipe. That is how a processes
happen inside the cell. So this is like for example I have given you um so in DNA if it says start from here in RNA it
will be just transliteration. So the uh the language remains the same
the information is changed in such a way that it can be translated to a protein.
So the information becomes or when it comes out it becomes converted to the language that protein
can understand. So this I'm trying to explain in this the whole thing pictorially here. So this is the part
that you saw in the video. This is the nucleus. So cell nucleus genome
the gene that that is required alone actually uh opens and that information
is converted into the RNA which is uh in this yellow color strand that you can see. Now this yellow color strand comes
out to the cytoplasm on the in the cytoplasm over the yellow color thing
your protein gets synthesized. Now uh we have to understand this part though it
seems very technical because when we say gene editing this is what we go and change.
Now when this comes out the RNA does not come out as such say uh beach which
pieces. So there is a little bit of uh you know modification that happens at the RNA
level before it comes to the cytoplasm. So it is very similar to uh like for example the information in the RNA is
like this jumbled sentence. So
all the information is just aligned in one uh strand and it is brought out and
protein is synthesized. So this part is called transcription and translation.
Now we are getting into the next. So um before we get into this slide now we saw
what is a genome? Genome is that which has all the information for a for an
organism to function. What is a gene? Gene is specifically that information
that will give you know get converted to a particular protein which has to carry out a specific function in a specific
cell. So that is what genome and gene are. Now we are trying to understand
what is uh what is our I mean when we do transgenesis or you know when we talk
about gene edited genome modified and all that what are we what are they doing
and why are we against it to understand that we have to first understand one concept. So
um when while we saw this video about the human uh you know human liver cell
we saw that the organals were presented the cell was similar to what you see here. No we saw a nucleus and then uh
these structures also. So I was mentioning that the genome is inside the nucleus. Uh so in a u in a ukareotic so
we say higher organism or those which have a true nucleus these have
everything organized in pockets called the organals where specific functions inside the cell will happen. But you
also have bacteria or lower organisms which are evolutionarily lower they have
their they are not organized into organals uh as such. So why should we
understand this particular concept? I'll tell you. So I was mentioning about this salivory gland cell having all the uh
the whole genome there but only those genes that are required for saliva production are turned on. So in human uh
organ I mean in ukariots what happens is you have specialization of cells of a particular uh place where
it is present. So there some of the genes are turned on and off. In the case of proaryotss because everything is
present in the cytoplasm as such there is no demarcation of of where functions will happen. You find that the whole
genome is always open and you know expressed all the time. So bacteria
found out a way in which it it would make it energy efficient. So those genes
which are not required for regular functions were removed from the whole chromosome and stored as extra
chromosomal DNA. This extra chromosomal DNA in in the case of bacteria we call
it a plasmid. This was this discovery was the one that uh scientists I mean so
that is the one that we can say led to genetic modifications later. So we will
understand how these two are related why you know understanding one extra chromosomal DNA in a bacterium led to
genetic modification. So for that let us understand through this slide. So what happened uh is there were two types of
transfers. So uh we all by now I think after co many of us are aware of a few
terms. Now when we say gene or know mutation or something like that we have heard at least these terms. Now when we
say uh genome gets transferred genes get transferred. So from the parent to the
offspring so from parent to progeny if the whole set of genomes are you know for whole so from us our traits are
passed on to our children that is called vertical gene transfer but scientists
found that there was something called horizontal gene transfer. So whatever we saw in the previous whatever I mentioned
in the previous slide about this extra chromosomal DNA present in the bacteria
they found that these were getting passed on among the bacteria from one
bacteria to another which were not you know directly its child it was just passed on to random bacteria in a in the
same place and then it was also found that it was not restricted to just
organisms of the same type. There are now uh you know um evidences for
horizontal gene transfer happening between plants and animals between plants I mean between fungi and animals
uh in fact even in the human genome many of the genes have been traced to
organisms I mean other than human beings. So all of the genes that we have are not completely from our parents. We
have got some genes from other organisms as well. Now this the danger of this was
not understood before. Horizontal gene transfer uh in higher organisms was not
found until 2010 but lateral gene transfer between bacteria was
understood. So they found that this extra chromosomeal bacteria.
So what people tried what scientists tried was inside this extra chromosomal
DNA or plasmid if you put in something if you put in some gene from somewhere
they found that this also got transferred this also got transferred and successfully accepted. Now why have
I in uh the reason I have included the next point is natural selection is uh
nature has this uh feature that whenever there is something new that is coming in it'll
always accept because it understands that it is it is going to prepare the organism for some upcoming danger. So
what happens whenever we uh add something into the plasmid and put it inside some other organism it it was
observed that it was taken up by the organism and incorporated into its
genome. So this is uh the observation. Now um this in this manner people
started to uh doing what is called transgenic uh they started generating genetic modified genetically modified
crops genetically modified organisms animals everything so in this panel I'm
not going through all of this uh because I think we have to look look at gene
edited rice varieties right now so I'm not going to the basics let us directly go into the insert picture here so Here
you have a coin and the size of the cop. This was the native variety of corn uh
years back. Now when they genetically modified it, they this is the amount of
change that happens. You see how big the corn cob has become in comparison to the
coin between the native variety and the uh genetically modified one. Whereas you
have traditional methods of modifying uh so many of the traditional farmers even
now you know um thing do things like this which is called a back cross. So
from the uh so if you have two parents so from the lower uh the picture insert
in the lower uh thing you find that uh these two are the parents on the sides
P1 and P2 are the parents and what is in between B is the hybridized one. So here
though you uh so by traditional methods itself you can actually increase the size of the corn cob but uh it is not as
you know dramatic as the previous one. So there is uh so this is this is one
thing I wanted to show because there is not uh many cases there is no
requirement for a genetic modification and we have still you know gone ahead with it. So, so far we have tried to
understand that all living organisms have a genome which is made up of DNA
and that DNA has codes which get you know translated into protein. And then
we saw that the bacteria have DNA which is not part of the genome is um is what
that extra chromosomeal DNA which is used for introducing DNA to another organism.
So in fact viruses also are used for uh you know uh transferring genes from one
organism to another. Uh however I'm not going into that. We are just uh trying
to understand literally uh the skim the surface literally. Now let us go and so
we have understood what a genome is how genetic modification happens what uh
through that extra chromosomal DNA that we saw before. Now we will try and okay
suppose uh so I was mentioning that in that extra chromosomal DNA you could add
a gene of your choice. So whenever we have to add something what would we do that original uh plasmid that extra
chromosomeal DNA. So you can think of it as a circle okay or a rubber band or something. Now in that what you would do
you would cut it open attach the uh genome that you wish to attach seal it
and then transfer it. No. So this literally this these would be the steps through which you would transfer. So
that is how uh uh genes are transferred. So we would be looking at um how how it
is cut. So why am I talking about this is again let us remember the dimensions
that we are dealing with is so tiny less than know thousand times smaller than
two lines of your fingerprint. In that dimension we are doing these many modifications of cutting and sticking
and so on. So I just wanted to bring uh uh you know uh let us look at that next.
Now before we go into that let us look at genetic mutation.
Now genetic mutation again is one thing that we have always uh I mean we have heard since covid times. So when we say
mutation it is when one thing changes or it uh you know uh so how all you can
mutate is uh given here. So you can have this is the original message. For
example, it says I'll be by the lake. Okay. When you have a point mutation,
you just change one alphabet. Suppose instead of th you say thw.
So you get some information that is not able to you know that give you the exact sense but you are able to guess with
reference to context. Uh you can say oh maybe this is the only with reference to
context you will be able to guess. when you say uh suppose you change the word alphabet lake to uh L to C you will get
the uh information changed to I'll be by the cake so here information changes so
instead of so this person who is probably trying to meet somebody instead of going to the lake they would probably
go to a cake shop you're you know misleading that person next you have something called a nonsense mutation
where one alphabet gets deleted what happens the information itself you know is does
not make sense if you just shift one alphabet from there. So um I also
mentioned about genome having uh the the DNA only being made of four alphabets
and all of the protein u is you know the RNA and the DNA have
their language consisting only of threeletter words. So if I remove this
alphabet. So here it says the cat and the dog. So the uh one in the lower uh
thing no panel that is what is the DNA language. So it is G g A GC. Like for
example if you delete A because I told you it's all going to be threeletter
words. It will start taking this as the next word. Instead of A GC followed by
CG A it would become G g C C G A C the
whole thing will shift by one alphabet that is what we call it as uh frame
shift. So um now that we have understood that now I'm going into how we are going
to prepare that uh plasmid for transferring our uh the gene that we
want to introduce and put it into another one. So I was mentioning right so suppose it's like a rubber band. So
let us imagine plasmid is like that rubber band. In that rubber band you will have to cut one uh cut at one place
introduce whatever you have to introduce seal these ends and then use it uh you
know use it uh to transfer the gene that you have put in into another organism.
So those that are capable of cutting exactly at uh some places are called
nucleases restriction endonucleases. So scientists found that something could
cut in that dimension and precisely at some regions. So in among the
restriction endonucleus you have uh you know enzymes which are this specific. So they can cut in such a
way that it'll have no it'll cut it staggered. So it'll have these uh ends
which are uh sticky ends. So like in this wood uh pieces of wood that you see
you have something hanging like that. So that is in the case of this particular
example bam H1. If you see it'll cut here between the G's. So you will get
something which is like this. This can be stuck. So for sticking there is another answer or it can produce blunt
ends like this. These also can be stuck. There are some places where you will get
this kind of splinters also. Now this splinter is what is uh significant in
case of gene editing. So we'll quickly go through this video for us to understand how it is cutting um so that
it'll you know help us imagine.
So this is like your plasmid the extra chromosomeal DNA
the end uh so it is zoomed in now this is the endonucleus that is coming in
it'll go scan through the DNA to find the appropriate place where it will cut
and it'll cut there. Now what is left is you know staggered
end. Now this is the gene that the scientists wants to introduce that is introduced like that and another enzyme
will come and seal that place
that end also is sealed. So this is how the plasmid is modified and
used for transferring our uh transferring whatever uh modification we
intend to incorporate.
Okay. Um
now what happens um in gene um okay this particular slide is
going to tell us about how uh now we saw that something comes and um attaches
right so we saw that one enzyme went and cut the DNA the uh extra gene was added
and something came and sealed the ends right so when the sealing happens we
have um various ways in which the ceiling will happen. So here if the cut is like
this, there are some enzymes which can perfectly align things and attach in a uh seamless
manner. But there are some enzymes which will do a quick fix. So for example uh
suppose we have a plumbing issue at home. There might be all of us will have would have had faced this issue. There
will be one plumber who is very very efficient uh who would do a perfect job. But then there would be another person
who will come immediately and fix it. So depending on the urgency of our situation, we would call somebody who uh
depending on how urgent the damage is or how urgently we need to fix it. So in in
case of gene editing what happens is whenever this fixing happens. So I was
telling you about getting sealed. No that sealing enzyme uh that switches on during gene editing
is cast 9 which is actually a quick fixing enzyme. It is not the type of
enzyme which will do a perfect job. So it will do something like this. If there is splintered wood, what will a
carpenter do? You can actually you know align it accordingly and then do it perfectly or you can completely shave it
off and then attach it like a blunt end to end. So this particular enzyme that
you see in that is involved in gene editing does this kind of a job like a
quick fix. It removes parts of the DNA and then attaches it. Uh so
this is why we are worried about gene editing or any type of genetic
modification because whenever we modify we are introducing extra genetic
material inside and when we introduce also many of these methods actually
clear off some of the DNA that is already present there or modify it even further. So what will what we would be
probably generating would would create a cascading effect. So in the beginning itself I was mentioning about how uh the
salivory gland would have all of the genes of the genome but only those genes
that are required for saliva secretion are turned on the rest of them are turned off. Now when whenever we
introduce something like this when unintended modifications happen in the genome what will happen is you are not
sure what will get turned on unintentionally too or if something else
that was originally supposed to be turned on is also getting turned off. So any of these uh modifications are you
know it's there is a possibility that such things can happen. So that is why we are against genetically modified
organisms. So now I'm getting into crisper cast specifically. So I hope we
are able to understand whatever we saw so far. We saw what is a genome, what is a gene. Um we saw how um you know how
organisms uh I mean how the extra chromosomeal DNA was used for transferring genes into
another organism. Now we are getting in. So whatever we saw so far was called uh
as transgenics. So under genetically modified organisms and transgenics only
these were included. This genetic modification using crisper cast or this
is now called gene editing. But from our from my understanding it is only just
word play. Even in gene editing without modification of the genome you can never
achieve it. So uh this is uh for to understand this I would uh quickly go I
will take you to another video. I hope uh um I hope speed is okay.
Yeah. But now you've come to the critical part of genome. So we'll we'll
continue at this phase.
Um so I'm I'm directly taking you to what is crispercast technology.
The crisper cast 9 system is a tall.
So this actually uh we are we getting into the cell or the nucleus again to the chromosome.
So originally uh this crisper cast technology was found to be the immune
system of a bacterium actually.
So this particular protein that you see this is what is crisper cast 9ine. Uh so crisper the expansion of crisper is
clustered regularly interspaced palendroic repeats. So in bacterial uh
genome scientists had found that there were uh genes which had uh interruptions
in between or there were repeats in between which there were some uh DNA. So
when we say palendromic so crisper again I'll go through clustered regularly
interspaced palendroic repeats. So there are clusters of repeating sequences
interspersed with something else present in the genome and whatever is this uh
repeating sequence is in the type of in in the form of a palendrome. What is palendrome? uh like for example madam
mallayam nitin all of these are palendromes right if you read from both sides it reads the same so you had such
kind of repeats and between them there was some DNA present when they checked what DNA it was they found that this was
DNA from a virus so in a bacteria so for a bacteria virus is the one that will
cause diseases so it had information of the virus kept between repeating
sequences so that next time another virus came, it would check the DNA and
it'll understand whether whatever came in was a virus. Has it affected us
before? And then it'll go and cut the virus's genome. So it it was a kind of
an immune system that the bacteria had and that immune system had something
called the cast 9 protein. So this protein would scan through the genome of
I mean scan through any DNA that comes in. look for sequences which were you
know already available in its crisper uh you know area and if it was matching
it'll go and cut it. So it was uh this protein that was exploited in crisper
cast 9 technology. Now they found that this crisper had a RNA
which was used for going and checking the DNA that was coming inside. So if it
had this uh the same sequence it'll go and cut it. So what you see in gray uh
grayish blue is the one that will cut this is the one that is used for checking. It's like your security check
for example. So if somebody has uh so it's like a scanning machine if that person has this ID card uh they will
pass through the you know biometric system and go in. It's like that.
So this is the castine protein. So this castine protein protein is a cutting enzyme or restriction
endonucleus and it has this RNA which is going to guide it to that place where it has to
get cut.
This PAM is nothing but the palendroic sequence uh related.
blue see it has found the place where it has
to go cut so the palendroic thing is like uh so I
um again this is one example we can uh use to understand so in a blind person's
house the house would be arranged according to step counts right so many steps will lead me to say for a for
example chair from from here if I take these many steps in this direction I'll go somewhere errors like that the genome
is organized. So the palendroic sequence is like the step count between the
places where it has to get cut.
Now here this this is the repair system. So here what happens once it is cut our
quick fix repair system that which will remove the splinter that will come and turn the gene off.
So this is what is crisper cast technology. So what these people have done um what
they um whenever they claim that it is a gene edited organism they use one of
these so crisper cast there are so many modifications of that crisper cast 9
itself. Now you have cast 12 and so on. So these are modified proteins which have been trained to cut various uh you
know uh the they have changed uh you know they have given us different guide RNA and so on and they are using this
protein which actually comes from a bacteria to cut any gene and modify any
uh genome. So what is technology? Yeah. Uh if uh you can go to what yes exactly
these slides. Yeah. What they have aimed at is through this
gene editing technology they wanted to achieve genetically engineered gen gene
edited. So this is just word play. Any modification in the genome is a modification only. Like I mentioned when
you introduce a new gene also there is even though they say you have not introduced any any other gene along with
it. You've only gone and edited there. Uh like I mentioned the repair mechanism
is one that sh you know cuts off original DNA and then uh repairs. It's
like that. Another thing that we have to remember which I just want to mention here is whenever um um whenever any
modification is done to identify those cells which have got it gotten in uh
gotten this modification inside them there is something called a marker gene which is always introduced. So um uh so
this is like for example there are a group of people um okay traveling somewhere some of them belong to an
institution they wear an ID or something no so this is like that ID card. So those um organisms which have got this
genetic modification incorporated inside are identified using a marker gene. This
marker gene is a is a gene from outside only. No. So even in a gene edited organism there is no way that uh
somebody can claim that extra gene is not introduced inside. So they have used gene edited uh gene editing uh editing
to modify mushrooms to just change their color. Uh they have used it to create
you know hornless cattle. Even human genome editing has been attempted in China but thankfully this person got
arrested. Uh nothing further has happened but still this is not a safe technology actually. Uh so even though
it is gene editing even though they say it is precise it we understand that so
many problems are possible what all problems are listed in this are they claim that it will be specific and it'll
go cut only in that place they found that that is not true it goes and cuts randomly somewhere else also then this
repair system they say it's proof foolp proof that is also has been disputed they said parts of the genome itself is
eaten up and non-targeted so whatever ever genetic modification they targeted
that did not happen something else happened like the domino effect all of these have been observed so these are
our potential points of concern and another point of concern is what I mentioned right in the beginning
horizontal gene transfer so any modification that we do the risk of get
that getting incorporated into the human genome is also uh something that we are slowly understanding so these um so
therefore the need of the actually is regulation. So we have to regulation and
creating awareness. So first thing government has to have some regulatory uh uh you know systems in place where
they would check what kind of modification is being done. Why is it done? Is there is there a um uh you know
route in which we can do it without genetic modification at all? Like for example the hybrid variety that I showed
you. There are so many native varieties of crops already existing where these
desired things that that are claimed like for example salt tolerance or drought tolerance for these there are so
many native varieties which can be used. Yes
not required. So these are the regulations that we have to do. So thank you for our attention. Sorry I
exceeded a little bit I guess. No, thank you uh so much uh Dr. Gita. Uh
I think uh if I as a lay person have to
sum up uh what uh you were saying, genome editing also needs a vehicle
of uh a plasmid or uh an external vector
which can take the uh gene of interest into the host organism. for genome
editing to take place. Along with it go other foreign genes like marker genes
and so on. That's point number one. Point number two, uh you are questioning
the claim around precision. Uh where they say that only the intended change
will happen. No other change will occur. uh you are pointing out that uh the
enzyme uh has the ability to make
changes off target also. Uh the protein
that got introduced and uh the fact that
uh the foreign genes can get inserted inadvertently though that was not the
intention. So this whole narrative that uh GM is different uh which is
transgenic technology had uh foreign genes used whereas here there are no
foreign genes. Uh they they claim that uh yes such inadvertent insertions
happened but we have cleaned it up. Uh afterwards we checked we did back
crossing we cleaned it up but uh just to put the record straight no one has seen those reports. uh but there's a lot of
published literature that shows that inadvertently even if it is not the in
uh intention such genetic material does get inserted then we have evidence
that shows that you didn't intend for some new protein to be produced. uh you
thought you were doing something very precise as a geneticist but the cha changes are so unpredictable and random
even in genome editing that new proteins have been discovered
uh including through their phenotypic expression uh you know that hornless
cattle example from the USA and so on. So uh you're basically pointing out that
uh it was like a primer. You tried to give a lot of simple anecdotes for us to
understand uh how uh something like cast 9 or cast 12 operates and then what
happens with the repair mechanisms and even in the repair mechanisms what sort
of uh randomness actually exists. Uh thank you so much uh for uh you know a
very pictorial uh uh you know depiction of what is genome editing. Uh though it
appears complicated some of our participants have written saying that it's too scientific too technical I'm
still not able to follow. That's all right. Uh you know we are not going to be geneticist tomorrow. uh she uh gave
us those basics so that we at least understand uh what we are uh talking
about but let's move to the next presentation which is about the two rice
varieties and Shiaomik will present uh the real world questions that emerge uh
from uh what has happened with two rice varieties that have been genome edited
and I will say uh very very intentionally that these two varieties
are genetically modified. GM genome editing is not uh very uh
separate from genetic modification. It's part and parcel of GM as per India's law
as well as when you understand the technique at the molecular level. Um
Shamik I hope you are around and yes yeah thank you uh and good evening.
I will uh load my presentation.
Yes. Uh is it visible? Yes it is.
Yes. Uh so uh as we know that uh this uh gene edited rice or rather gene modified
rice was uh released recently uh by our agriculture minister and the
top officials of uh ICR. Uh these two rices are named Busa DST1 and DRR Dhan
100 or Kamla and both of them are gene edited. We will just look at their uh uh
characters which have been published. So bus Busa DST1 has been developed from a
popular variety MTU10 which is already being cultivated in large area of India
and they have used the site directed nucleus that is SDN1 technology as Dr.
Pritika had just told you about nucleus which are enzymes which goes and cuts
DNA at specific points. So this is the SDN1 technology which I
will explain what it is and this was developed in New Delhi ICRI
and this has a mutated form of drought and salt tolerance gene. So in the rice
there is a drought and salt tolerance gene which has been mutated using uh by
using the gene editing technology and uh by that mutation
uh they are claiming that the rice has uh got broader leaves and it has reduced
tomata and because it has reduced tomata the water efficiency has increased
because uh stomata is involved in transpiration. Uh there are also several other
functions but uh they are focusing on the evapo transpiration. So when you
have low stomatal density or water efficiency goes up and it has ability to
withstand salt and its yield is 2.4 to 3.7 metric tons per hectare in saline
saline and alkaline soils as per their trials. Yes. And it has been recommended
Dhan DST rice 1 is uh MTU10
site directed nucleus short form SDN1 technology
DNA
mutant create
Microscopic
Maybe
alkaline maybe
ugly sal.
Indian Insty Hyderabad.
Samba. Samba.
Basically cytoin plant growy
oxidase
cytoine.
Motor
sambust
mature.
Hector
English. [Music] Oh, okay. Sorry, I have to do in both l
some red red mark is coming. I'm not able to understand. Anyway, so uh this
kamla is also known as Drr Dhan 100. It has been developed by the Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad
from Samba Masuri, which is another popular variety. And here also SDN1 gene
editing has been used. But this is crisper cast 12way. The earlier busard
DST was crisper cast 9. This is crisper cast 12way. Uh advanced technology from
9. And here uh as we know in plants there is a hormone called cytokinine and
there is a enzyme called cytokinine oxidase which breaks down cytokinine. So
they have edited the gene which produces cytokinine oxidase and there are
different cytoinine oxidases in rice. They have basically edited the CKX2 gene
and by editing that they are claiming the yield has gone up. The drought tolerance moderate drought tolerance is
seen and the high nitrogen efficiency is seen. The rice variety matures in 110
days which is about 20 days earlier than its parent and its yield is claimed to be 5.37 metric tons per hectare. The
rice retains its grain cooking quality and is recommended for all these states
which are similar more or less similar to busa DST1. Now what is this sight directed
uh nucleus? So there are three such technologies which are called SDN 1, SDN
2 and SDN 3. Out of this SDN 1 and two have been exempted from uh the I mean
they are not considered gene modification. So what is the SDN1 technology which has
been used to develop this uh two rice varieties. So SDN1 technology here the
the double strand break is made like Dr. Critikica had shown in DNA there is
double strand two strands of uh this uh DNA and then that is broken that is cut
that is cut by what by the crisper cast uh enzyme that is the nucleus. So when
it is cut then certain genes are deleted in the process and what happens is that
the DNA again joins by the natural mechanism of the cell and uh that is how
the modifi I mean the editing is done. So here what happens there are changes in base pairs and certain parts of the
gene are knocked out. So you actually cut the DNA at a specific place and then
the DNA again joins and in the process some of the uh base pairs that is what
Dr. I was showing ATGC some of those combinations are deleted and you get a
new type of a DNA and by this process those uh changes which are which which
they have found like the leaves are changing the stomata is reducing all those things are happening and they have
targeted it for a particular gene that is the drought and uh salt tolerant gene
and in SDN2 also it is similar but here there there is a uh there is a template
which is also used for making specific changes and SDN3 of course that uses
foreign DNA so it is not under the exemption it is normal gene modification
so what happened in 2022 uh the government actually exempted SDN1
and SDN2 uh type type of uh tools
from uh this uh genetic modif ification oversight. So they modifi they they
removed it from the environment protection act 1986 and by this deregulation so this deregulation was
purposely done so that the it opened the door for gene edited crops and we can
now see that two rice varieties have come out which are not under the oversight of the GC because it is
exempted. So, so uh once it is exempted the the safety and other procedures are
much reduced uh and 40 more crops are in the pipeline. Uh so we will have more and
more uh these type of crops coming up. Now with this gene editing technology
you can develop all types of products. You can develop different different types of rices which might may have uh
more phosphorus efficiency or nitrogen efficiency or pest or disease tolerance
or stress tolerance or you can even create u herbicide tolerance and you can
create different types of nutrients. So a lot of things can be done and they have actually mapped out several such
genes uh in rice which can be edited and by editing those genes you can get uh
different types of uh desired changes to is
SDN1 or SDN 2 technique in exempt in
gene modification Basically [Music]
editing technology.
Exempted
literally.
So,
phosphorus, nitrogen,
changes. I say
Sorry me for uh interrupting. Can you stop sharing the screen and repro it
again? Uh for the red lines. I have disabled the whiteboard. Uh
but still I'm unable to deal with the red lines. Okay, I'll do that. Sorry about it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So, I'll go to that slide.
So, PSA GST one rice how was it developed? Uh because here the paper is
published in a journal. So, we have come to know what they have done. uh so what
they have done as Dr. Critica had told that they had uh found they have targeted the DST gene. DST is the
drought and saline tolerant gene. So there is a gene in the rice which is uh
having this property. Uh so what they have done they have created guide RNAs and they have because
the guide RNAs cannot just uh the guide RNA will basically guide the cast 9
enzyme the nucleus to go to that site and it would be uh cut at that
particular site which the scientists want. So but the guide RNA can't go
inside the cell just like that. It has to be packaged. it has to be put inside
and something uh so that it can go inside and that thing is the vector which is the plasmid which also I was
just talked about. So in the plasmid there the guide RNA is put and the cast
9 is put and they are attached. Uh but even after that the this plasmid cannot
also get inside the cell. So uh it is further cloned into another bigger
plasmid which is the pcambia 1300. Now this plasmid is used for agroacterium
transformations. Now agroacterium basically is a bacteria which stays in soil and it creates uh plant tumors. It
infects the plant and it creates some kind of swelling in the plant which is just basically a tumor. So it goes and
in inserts it genetic material inside the plant. So that is why it is used for gene modification and the same
technology we are using in gene editing also and yet we are saying they're different here also the agroacterium
technology is used. So what is happening this guide RNA is cloned into the cast 9
complex and then that is put inside the uh agroacterium plasmid and then the
rice plants the seeds are grown in a media. This is done in the laboratory
and in that media when the rice is growing this uh agroacterium complex is
put into that and it infects the rice cells and by that infection the genetic
material is transferred into the rice and incorporated into the rice and there
there is where the nucleus starts working and once the nucleus reaches the
particular site which has to be edited the nucleus does its cutting work and
removes certain uh base pairs from the DNA and that is how we get the gene
edited rise. After that they do sequencing and they do screening
selection. Basically they are saying that we are we are removing all these foreign materials. So what are those
foreign materials? So we have the agroacterium plasmid which is a bacterial uh DNA which is going inside.
Then there are antibiotic markers. So antibiotic markers like hydroycine, canamycin
uh these are used so that for screening. So if the DNA whether the DNA has got
incorporated into the rice genome or not is understood by giving antibiotics. So
they will give hydroycin and all these antibiotics and because that antibiotic resistance gene is there. So the uh
cells which have got those genes they will resist it. They will not die. The others which have not gone will die and
so that is how you will easily understand which have been transformed and which have not been transformed. So
these are the marker genes. So these are also from bacteria. Then uh this uh CMV35S
this is a promoter. This is a cauliflower mosaic virus. CMV is cauliflower mosaic virus. So this one
also is being used as a promoter so that the gene once it goes inside it can
express in a more vigorous fashion. So we have all these foreign elements going
in. Of course the scientists are claiming that we are removing them through screening, through selection,
through PCR and all these technologies but we are not sure because the
information is not available. So what is happening because of this uh editing? So
in the process of this editing uh this cutting 366
base pairs so 366 80g what uh Dr. I think I was showing a pairs with T and G
pairs with C. So that is that is why it's it's known as base pair. So 366
base pairs are deleted in the drought and saline tolerant gene. So we are
basically interfering with the DNA. We are we are removing several uh elements
of the DNA and we don't know what is their their action. We are saying that
the we are talking of the positive results of it but what are the negative
results we don't know because nature had put those genes there. So but and we are removing it and we are saying there is
only positive positive effects that is something which is uh not possible. There may be some negative effects which
we are not looking at. So when you delete those so as Dr. Kitika said that
from DNA we get RNA and then RNA translates into protein. So this again
has effect on the protein. So in the protein also pro what is protein? Protein is a big chain of amino acids.
So there are large number of amino acids strung together like a garland. So from
that 184 to 305 those amino acids in the
series are not forming because you have deleted 366 base pairs. So the effect in
the protein is also seen and because these amino acids are deleted then there
is a new for new type of protein formed. It is not the same protein which the 1010 had. This is the mutant DST protein
and this mutant DST protein is actually leading to phenotypic changes. That is
you can see when you grow the rice you see the rice has incre the leaf width has increased the stomatal density has
reduced uh and uh this has resulted in its salt
tolerance and uh at the seedling stage at that is what they're claiming so this
is the positive part but we don't know what is the what are the other negative part so there is a loss of function
uh is hindi
scientist guide RNA guide RNA basically droughtic
Nucleus
guide
Infection Create
material.
DNA
gene involved antibiotic markers involved. Antibiotic
marker.
Antibiotic marker.
Bacterium promotient
DNA base pairs.
DNA
series
amino acids protein amino acid protein.
Mutant protein.
negative
G. Uh now coming to DRR DAN 100 which is also known as Kamla. We don't have much
information about this because the paper is also not published. Research paper on
this uh uh variety is not yet published. So whatever material we could get. So as
I said key here cytokinine cytokinine is a major plant hormone which is involved
in regulating cell division, leaf development, root growth. So it has a lot of functions and there is a enzyme
called cytokinine oxidase which is CKX for short and they basically regulate
cytoinine. So whether there should be more cytokinine or less cytoinine that is regulated by this enzyme. So through
gene editing they have actually uh cut uh they have actually edited the
gene responsible to produce that enzyme. Now in rice there are 11 cytoinine
oxidases of out of which the cytokinine oxidase 2 gene has been edited not all
of them have been edited only the two uh cytokinine oxidase gene has been edited.
So in that gene in that cytoinine oxidase 2 gene there is a particular uh
section uh particular segment which is the GN1A
and this from earlier research they have found that this is associated with high grain number higher panicles and lodging
resistance. This research is available from earlier times. So they have basically edited those parts. So here
they have used crisper cast 12way instead of cast 9. So they have edited
two uh exxons in the uh samba masuri uh
that is the parent and this has led to 16 base pair and six base pair deletions
in exxon 1 and 11 base pair deletion in exxon 3. So two exxons have been edited
where you have got these these deletions. So it is same again they have knocked out certain segments of the gene
and they here also they have used CMV35S this is a cauliflower mosaic virus
promoter antibiotic resistant marker genes uh and they have used the similar
technology but we don't have all the details so basically it is the same type
of technology where they have identified certain genes they have knocked out
segments of that gene and because of those knocked out segments the protein is also affected and the protein is not
able to do its function as it would have done naturally and that has resulted in
some positive effects which are being highlighted and we are not aware about what are the negative effects or maybe
the negative effects are not being evaluated or they are not showing now they may show some years down the line
so we don't have all those information so now uh oh is Hindi
Dr. 100m
cytoinine.
Cytokinine oxidase. Cytoin
cytoine oxidase
12
advanced version.
Antibiotic resistance marker. CMV 35s promot
Research paper
DST gene.
Sodium potassium balance
stress response hydrogen peroxide modulation
function.
function.
CKX2ler,
phosphate deficiency tolerance, starch and protein content.
protein. I grain am
Normal GM technology. Agroacterium
transformation.
modified gene edit
to uh okay so so if we look at the functions of DST gene in rice so there
are several functions about apart from drought and salt stress so they are involved in osmotic balance they're
involved means stomatal regulation. They are involved in water retention, growth. Similarly, CKX2 which is cytoine oxidase
uh 2 uh gene that has also several several functions including functions of
uh starch and protein content including phosphate deficiency tolerance, crown
advantageous root growth, plant height, nitrogen uptake. So several functions
these are pleotropic uh genes means they have multiple actions in the plant. It
is not that I go there and change something and only that will happen and nothing else will happen. So we need to
actually check what are the effects in these so many different things. Scientists are claiming we have checked
but we don't know what they have checked and what they have not checked and what they have just ignored. So all those
things are not available to the public. And if we look at the two technologies,
the tools that has been used, they are more or less the same. Even in gene modified, we use agroacterium for cell
transformation. We look, we use antibiotic marker genes. Here also we
are using those things. We are also using cauliflower mosaic virus promoter.
There there also we use. And yet the government is telling this is safe technology. This is this does not
involve foreign gene. This nothing is there. But we are not sure whether they
are there or not there. And then uh there was a rebuttal that uh basically
gene editing and mutation breeding are the same thing but they are not the same thing. They're not equivalent because uh
even if the gene editing is considered specific which is of course more
specific than mutation breeding but still there are offtarget effects. It is not that you will send the nucleus it
will go and work there only because after all these are human technology. Okay, we are improving. Maybe after uh
much research people may come with such things but right now the technology is not foolproof and it it there are
several offtarget effects and there are several uh research papers on that and
in mutation breeding we are using some chemical or radiation from outside the
plant or the cell. We are giving that here we are directly going inside the
nucleus and changing the genomic materials and that way we are actually bypassing the natural gene regulation
because we are sending nucleuses they are randomly going and cutting different
things different places and uh accordingly they're making the changes. So the natural process of gene
regulation is bypassed here. Foreign genes are definitely involved which we have already talked about. Antibiotic
resistance is also involved and here because it is not precise whatever is
similar looking. So there are several similar looking gene clusters and all
those clusters can get targeted. It is not necessary that only GN1A
particular fivep prime untransated region of particular rice that will only
be targeted. There could be similar sequences which are similar looking and
there the nucleus can go and do its work. Then there are certain segments of
the genome which are protected. Which are protected means they have very important regulatory functions and
nature protects them from from mutations. Mutations are always happening but even then those protected
sequences are not mutated because they're very critical to the organism. But here because the nucleus does not
know which is protected and which is not protected. Its job is to see the sequence and cut it anywhere it sees it.
It may go and cut it there. So in the uh normal mutation breeding this will not
happen and every gene has at least two copies or more than two copies in the uh
in the plant or in humans or whatever. So in case of mutation breeding maybe
one copy is changed but the other copy is still retained. So if the plant wants to go back to its original say self it
can because the original one copy is still there. Here all the copies are changed because the nucleus will stop
not stop its activity till all the copies are changed. So this is a irreversible process. it is completely
changed forever until you again do another gene editing to come back to the original self. it cannot reverse itself
and so it uh basically uh leads to substantial changes in the
plant's phenotype which we can already we have already seen and because the DNA
is changed is it the same 10 10 or is it the same samba masuri it is something
else it is a new plant even it's different from many other patty varieties because other patty varieties
will have all those base pairs this one doesn't have And here the changes are
are smaller in size but they are more numerous. So there are lot of differences between conventional
mutation breeding using chemicals and irradiation and gene editing. So they
are not equivalent and government says that they're equivalent and we did not have any problems with mutation
breeding. Why we are having problems here? because it's not the same and so there is no question of substantial
equivalence and after all these why do we need all this why do we need we we
have lot of stress tolerant uh rices we have lot of high productivity rices we
can use them we don't need to go for these type of risky technologies
uh to mutation breeding
radioactive
chemical radiation.
Same crisply translate.
Sorry.
changes.
Similar
copies
organism.
Edies
orch. or
come or
lamps.
Varieties varieties.
state
alkaline conditions.
Saline tolerance research institute canning.
Dr.
editing.
rights, University of Vienna or Broad Institute,
Vidi
Samanch.
Shik I think the most important thing is that gene editing and all applications
of gene editing have to be regulated. Government of India should not have
deregulated SDN1 and SDN2. When we say to the
government that you have deregulated, they come back with an argument that no
there is something called a institutional biosafety committee that is looking at reports. But what is an
institutional biosafety committee? It is that committee which is constituted
inside a research institute where the researcher is doing this project. Now
why will they after getting funding for doing uh this research uh will they
start saying that something uh uh has been uh seen that is alarming in their
reports and so on. This is the job of regulators. This is the job of statutory
regulators. India's environment protection act has uh a definition for
genetic engineering. If you read that definition, genome editing clearly
constitutes genetic engineering. It should have been regulated by uh the
genetic engineering appraisal committee GAC. But what they have done cleverly is to
first deregulate what are called as uh SDN1 and SDN2 applications site directed
nucleus one and two applications and then announced these two rice varieties
as having been readyed. We haven't seen the fact that they have tested anything.
Uh those uh you know there's a lot of testing uh which is uh not comprehensive
enough, not independent enough, not long-term enough in the GM regulatory regime but even that has not been
applied in the case of these genome edited rises. It is a patented
technology and why should Indian government go and bring such patented seed material
and promote it with farmers and these patents are under exclusive license to
big multinationals like Cortiva uh Monsanto and others and Indian
government is going to promote farmers of India into growing uh these rice
varieties. claiming this that and the other. We do know what uh uh what kind of rigging of
uh tests that they did to make their claims in the case of GM herbicide
tolerant mustard. The same uh story could be repeating itself because none of us have seen what are their claims
based on that uh uh data uh those reports are not in the public domain.
Now after having pushed farmers into these kinds of technologies
uh you know IPRs are also after all a marketable uh tool you know you can uh
authorize someone you can even sell patents and if that is the case to walk
into this thinking that it's a benign thing uh when the livelihood security
and the food security of this country depends on what kind of seed materials
are being used by farmers. Why should the Indian government promote patented
technologies when the government of India takes a stand in global platforms
that India is against patents on seeds and any planting material? It's a
contradiction in itself. It's a it's antithetical to the way India's farmers
work when it comes to seeds and the way they have uh used seed as opensource
material for millennia for generations and generations. There are questions
around seed sovereignity like uh Swik also pointed out somebody wrote in the
chat box that lots of such products are being used by others safely. No, in the
US, despite all the hype about genome editing, only three genome edited crop
varieties have been allowed for commercial cultivation and two of those
are actually genome editing being applied for BT and herbicide tolerance
traits. things that can be uh done through uh
regular uh RDNA and things which are problematic with regular RDNA also. What
what is the new thing that's coming from genome editing? I think everyone in this
webinar should understand the complexity
and the beauty by which nature has uh
evolved systems by which molecular regulation happens. Regulation at the
genomic level and that's the example that Dr. Critikica was trying to give
again and again to tell you the complexity. Even though this cell here
in my body has the same genome as the cells here, hair is not produced here.
Hair is produced only here. Salivory glands and saliva gets produced
here and not here. Even though the
basic uh genomic sim similarity or sameness is
the same in all cells of my body. The organism is able to
um make those genes work in particular ways at particular times. It's important
to understand that location matters and time matters and with particular
interactions with the external environment as well as the internal molecular and other environments.
The complexity of gene regulation is manifesting in what you're seeing in
each organism and what the organism is able to do as its functions
without fully understanding how nature has
beautifully evolved this complexity. To think that you have understood such
uh a genome and its regulation and you know in ways that are
illiterate. The best of geneticists and what they are trying today is actually
illiteracy at a higher level. You are doing these changes which are
irreversible. With genome editing, the irreversibility is at the molecular level because
whatever you have inserted. Whenever it finds that particular
uh crisper pattern, it goes on editing it. Nature cannot uh you know natural
regulation cannot repair itself and no copies will be left untouched of this uh
gene because everything will be altered. Please understand that this is a more
irreversible uh genetic modification than even transgenic uh uh genetic modification
and this is genetic modification. There's no uh point in the government
and the biotech lobby packaging it as something else and saying that this is
not GM. It is indeed GM. It has a great deal of similarities with transgenic
technology. It is in fact dissimilar to uh genetic uh you know uh changes
mutations that happen with uh you know radiation and other kinds of breeding
and um it is important to understand I've been reading a question that was
coming up again and again in the uh chat box that what are the health
implications what are the health implications uh to the gentleman
uh or the lady who's been asking this question. Please realize that you will
be able to understand if there are health implications only if you do biosafety testing
only if you do comprehensive uh analysis at the molecular level to
understand whether there have been any genomewide changes. whether there have
been any changes other than the ones intended by the geneticist. Today those
tests are not happening. So the very first thing that we should ask even
before we talk about health implications are and so on is to say bring gene
editing under regulation period under rigorous comprehensive long-term
biosafety testing based regulation. If that is not done, you cannot take this
debate to the next level. But even as I say it, I have copied and pasted in the
chat box numerous published papers and these are published in prestigious
journals like nature and science. Uh many many uh papers that show that
genome editing is unpredictable. Uh there have been examples where uh you
know commercial companies have claimed that they've been successful with genome
editing uh in creating something and then only later after they uh get
permission and so on some independent scientists decided from the FDA decided
to relook at uh what has been presented and found that Many changes that have
happened have not been reported, have not been tested for. So let's ask for rigorous regulation as
the first step. Let's also say where is the need for such regulation where sorry
where is the need for such technology to be deployed? Are there no alternatives?
And thirdly, let's also ask the government, does government in a
democratic setup, do governments have the right when you and I have a
constitutional right, the right to life, right to life includes right to health,
right to uh healthy environment and so on. Can governments thrust untested
technologies on all their citizens without any debate, without any questions, by
tweaking a statute that already exists, without uh taking into consideration
published scientific literature. We are not saying a thing that is not bad
scientifically. You name uh your question. Somebody was asking again and
again does horizontal gene transfer actually happen including in human gut
and we will show you studies that are showing yes. In the UK, there's been a study where
they have found that the DNA that got inserted in a transgenic uh GM uh GMO
that was consumed by the human subjects in that experiment did end up in one of
the uh uh you know patients who consented for the experiment. It was
found that uh it appeared as is in the gut and there is something called
horizontal gene transfer with antibiotic marker resistant uh antibiotic resistant
marker genes being used which means that they have the ability to withstand
antibiotics. If those genes end up in disease-causing bacteria, your
antibiotics which have already become useless in many cases because of overuse
and misuse and abuse, they will no longer be able to control infectious
diseases. It's not just the individual humans problem, it is a public health
problem. So please understand that there are issues like this and that is why we
are raising uh you know this public debate and telling Mr. Shivra Singh Chan
that his understanding that GM is uh hazardous and therefore we have to
apply precaution there but genome editing is precise and safe is being
misled. they are similar. That's the bottom line here. Uh I have unmuted
everyone. Uh if there are any questions, uh we are willing to uh take those
questions collectively between uh all the three of us. And there are other participants who are also knowledgeable.
Yes, please. uh Kulpi Padesh Pand can we hear uh can we see uh show of hands uh
from others so that uh I get an idea of how many are uh interested uh in
commenting or asking questions and then uh how much time do we have anyone else
who has yeah gavita G I I just want to check the uh the possibility that the deregulation
of SD1 and SD2 can that be not challenged changed in in a court of law.
If the government is trying to bulldo its way through know um hoodwinking the
public, can we not uh directly confront them in the court? Yeah, we can and uh we will opt for it
after the Jantaaka court puts pressure on the government. you know rushing to
uh codes for instance um for 20 years uh GMO PILS a whole
batch of them were heard by the government by the Supreme Court for 20
years there have been some uh good orders that came out of it but uh many
many benches heard that case and in the end it's gone to another bench now when
it comes to GM mustard because there was a split verdict from a two judge uh
bench um and uh even uh the common order is
not getting implemented uh by the government of India and a contempt petition had to be filed. So yes, we'll
go to the courts. But before that, in a democracy,
a democracy where scientific voices are being raised, many of you may not know
this. uh from uh Nagpur 20 very senior
agriculture scientists including those who retired as vice chancellors of
agriculture universities have written to the prime minister of India saying why
did you deregulate uh genome editing so uh let's have this
debate also happening uh and we will rush to the court uh at the right time
thank you and I also want to request since you are taking so much pain and effort and both the presenters did an excellent job in
trying to explain the the nuances of that but I think there is still opportunity for making it simple as a
flyer sort of pitch which can be understood by you know moderately
educated or even uneducated or the farming fraternity per se because this
technical jargon I mean it's it's you have to still apply your mind and get
into it in a very mic micro detail even for a technical person but for layman
this just goes over the top and I would really appreciate if we can come out with some kind of flyer where it hits in
in a in the Modi language you know in a kind of very straightforward rhyming
kind of we need to get poets working on this we need to get you know multi-disiplinary people working on this
sure thank you kulip gi for now if all of you go back from this uh webinar are
understanding that genome editing is not different from GM that many of you have
opposed GM as in transgenic technology uh that's good enough for now but yes
simple flyers simple graphics we will attempt that uh Suhastai please go ahead
thanks Kavita nice to meet you all after long time we successfully
stopped the GM mustard with big actions and I think we have to go for something
like that. Share your all the concerns you express.
I was just wondering because there are so many amino acids deleted there might
be a change of test also and the cooking time needed. Uh I'm just saying this
because uh if those details are known
they could help us to tell other people that see these changes are happening and
maybe even the resistance to pest will also be affected. So for our flyers
like these kind of points may help us communicate that there are serious
problems even with this technology. Thank you. Yes, agreed.
I think would like to contribute to making the flyers if you need.
Lovely. Thank you so much. uh Suai uh Shiaomik did list down uh you know uh
the environmental impacts the positive uh the possible
uh you know impacts on the plant itself patty plant itself
uh from the kind of uh changes that have happened by the knocking out of two
important genes in two genome edited uh rice varieties. because they have
multiple functions those particular genes that have been uh knocked out. Uh
yes, we need a similar uh list uh for testing uh what might be happening uh to
these varieties in terms of human consumption in terms of human health and so on. I agree with you. Anupand please
go ahead. Yeah, thank you very much for this uh beautiful presentation.
My actually I want to add something what Shomik has told uh that I have seen a
lot of rice varieties in my life and still I see a lot of rice varieties in different locations those who have
developed these varieties they are not aware of this ecological systems the rice ecosystem they have never seen it I
I believe so that's why they're trying to do it in almir research or in in in in I think they're almir or in in in a
closed container research this is not practical research. If I if I any chance
to talk with them so I can show it to what rice is actually they are not aware of what rice is because they have not
seen in real situation. So my point is that that there are certain salt
tolerant varieties available in West Bengal that can give you the same amount of yield and that they're not talking
about rice and and fish. So what what when you see rice in the in water
conditions you you will find rice. So they are not at all questioning not at all talking about rice fish rice fish
compat varieties in shundon area areas I mean the salt tolerance and the deep
water is is almost same almost same. So we have certain varieties that can give you 3.5 ton of yield in this uh this
locality along with fish. So the total outcome would be more than they think
of. So this is the point uh we should raise and secondly that I have asked a
lot of my friends in West Bengal so whether they have seen the the trial of this varieties where they seen
unfortunately I didn't find any except Kenny in in in in there are several locations that show has told me that
Bakura and Chuchura the the government of West Bengal agriculture department
KBK they said they are not at all aware of these varieties I don't know when they have conducted this trial only
canning institute they told they have one variety they they got the trial so
that's why I think that one we need I mean right to information or like that
so that actually exactly where they conducted the trial we want to know it
this is the my mean this is my point yeah so uh the testing or the trials that they're talking about are in fact
not biosafety testing uh it is uh you know regular agronomic
uh testing in the IC's uh AICP uh projects. Um
we we we can get that information through RTI and so on. uh but the point
remains that uh we have seen in the GM herbicide
tolerant mustard case that such testing is rigged data is manipulated presentation is
manipulated full dossiers are not published in the public domain so it's a long fight uh
and we realize that these two rice varieties are basically a trojan horse
to open the floodgate ates of uh genomemed edited animals and plants and
uh you know I just want to uh repeat what uh Mr. Jam Romesh when he was the
union environment minister said which is that uh this uh gene technology I am
paraphrasing him is actually a solution going around looking for a problem
scientists have a tool they're now trying to see what is it that they can claim to be solving uh you know I I've
improved yields I have uh done cell line resistance with this uh this that and the other. So uh the fact that the
problem itself is concocted is an issue
and real solutions lie elsewhere. Is there anywhere anyone else who wants
to say anything uh who uh is interested in staying in touch? uh if uh we can
take the liberty of sharing on your email addresses the presentations we'll
certainly do that please go ahead uh yes they will uh return something
yeah we will share the presentations yeah please um I see uh P Mishra raising
hi yes am I audible yes you are so uh my point is developing countries
like India we have uh biodiversity
whereas in developed countries they have technology they are not aware of uh kind of
biodiversity we have uh since times immemorial
they are not aware of uh this many varieties listed unlisted here in India
and in other developing countries so they since they are not aware they think they are doing something new, very
innovative. Such things already exist here in our country. There is no need of
modifying the genes. There is no need of modifying or editing
um such genes. I mean varieties are available here. Indian government should
understand this difference that we are already equipped with such kind of natural uh you know equipped with we do
have such varieties we need we do not need uh such kind of editing or um uh IP
related things they need money they just want to uh you know patent all such
varieties and then they will uh sell their seeds here. This will all draining
this will be draining our economy. We still are agricultural based economy
and uh we should not allow them to flourish here to interfere uh our you
know food things, agriculture things apart from health. This is really uh a
big problem for our economy also. Well said uh
uh I request Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In India we have patent laws. This uh 3D section of
Indian uh patent act it doesn't allow such kind of patents but still they are
uh doing uh this regulation thing just they are trying to find the loopholes.
Yeah. So that they may take the advantage of those things. So government should not allow such things. That's it. Thank you.
Agreed. So uh a request to all the participants here is that you know I'm
sure you all have uh uh connections with uh some prominent voice or the other uh
it could be a bureaucrat, it could be uh a political leader, it could be uh an
eminent individual whose voice is heard. uh please uh think about what is it that
you can do uh for instance uh in the uh
GM free campaign uh in terms of transgenic technology it was state
governments uh which firmly said as per India's constitution both agriculture
and health are state subjects you have to consult us and only then move ahead
and the Supreme Court's judgment ment also uh the one that I was just referring to about a batch of PIL that
also uh the judgment the two judges said that uh so if you uh have any space uh
any ways of engaging with your state governments please do so right now in
Tamil Nadu hundreds and hundreds of people are writing a letter to uh their
chief minister uh asking the chief minister not to allow the government of India to
bring in genome edited rice varieties. Please think about things like that to
be done in other states also. Uh Mr. Hari Raj Singh uh please go ahead and
may I request all others to stay unmuted uh to stay muted. I'm sorry.
Um Niveita please check who's uh unmuted. Okay. Am I am I audible?
Yes. Ma'am,
it is actually it is contradicting the basic philos. Philosophy of natural farming
platform.
They are proven ones
media share is For example,
states. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else who wants to say anything?
Yes. government under the recommendation of USA
they have they have introduced green revolution but they have not taken the
responsibility and today's agriculture and solid problem now they are going in for second green
revolution there is no guarantee that what it will do for this country number three America wants to take the Indian
agricultural market now if this type of GM GM and modified products are
introduced the whole products still became contaminated. We should remember that when BT was introduced in
Maharashtra in entire Gujarat BT spread
illegally. Now if so many products they developing
it can be a great assault on Indian agriculture we should stop it anyhow. Thank you. Thanks. Uh
Vijay Kumar G. Good evening madam.
Uh madam my question is what is the negative effects of GMO seeds in our
body? And my second question is is uh
vaccines really changing our DNA?
Thank you madam. um Shiaom uh Dr. Kitika meanwhile I'll
bring some links uh for the published literature on GMO effects uh
Kitika Shomik what are the negative effects?
Yes. So as we have discussed uh that uh
when we are changing some genes uh it may result in uh changes in the amino
acid sequences. It may result in changes in protein and uh those genes are having
different uh effects like they are also contributing to protein and starch accumulation and nitrogen uptake and all
that. So it may be affecting the nutrient, it may be releasing some
toxins and it may create allergic reactions in the body. So those are
several researches available on these that how GM crops or even gene edited.
Recently there was a gene edited tomato released in Japan uh which was having a
particular uh uh neurotransmitter and it resulted in increased uh sleepiness. It
was acting like a sedative. So those types of effects uh do happen
uh or they are possible and until we test for them we don't know.
Kitika did you want to add anything?
Yeah. Um like Somi said uh specific examples are also there and uh broadly
also I think uh like you had mentioned in the chat uh Kavita had mentioned in the chat uh the possibility of whatever
we modify getting into native varieties and completely
modifying them that that danger is also there u through Poland transfer or
through horizontal gene transfer. So the native varieties should not get affected by the ones that we are uh attempting uh
by genetic modification.
So uh Vijay Kumar G there's a lot of scientific evidence. In fact we
published a compilation of uh such published papers in 2015
last I think 2013 or 15. Um yes I I'll check again whether the link that
I shared is the latest edition or there was one more edition. Uh it has different uh sections uh human
health impacts, environmental impacts um issues around uh I mean molecular
level uh impacts um and uh please understand
that uh our basis for arguments can be uh if
we are talking about rigorous science experimental studies because once something is released East and you go on
asking uh you know did people die in uh the USA because of GM crops and so on.
We'll never know because they've not segregated. They've not labeled uh you
can't uh tell whether a person who's died uh has died because of uh you know
uh smoking or environmental pollution or uh a particular pesticide or GM food and
so on. So those uh you know variables being many in real life uh makes
scientific evidence being built uh much more challenging. But in terms of experimental studies, there are a lot of
studies which give early warnings and scientifically as well as legally uh
including an international agreement that India has signed on for gene technologies called the Cartahana
biosafety protocol. precautionary approach is the best way to adopt for
governments which basically put simply says better be safe than be sorry.
Don't wait for conclusive scientific evidence uh to prove whether something
is safe or unsafe before you take a decision. It is all right to make an
error feeling cautious and therefore not adopting a technology because you don't
want to be sorry later on. So it's better to be safe than sorry later on
when you make a big mistake. In terms of such experimental studies in
the past 10 years when we did not compile information a whole lot of new
scientific literature got published which is about both uh particular genes that are used
how they have toxic effects or allergenic effects and so on about the
process of genetic engineering and thereby consequent health impacts as as
well as about uh chemicals that get used along with GM
crops. I'm talking about both insecticides and herbicides. It is
actually synergistic effects of all these things that you end up seeing as
impacts. uh in countries like uh the US,
people are pointing out that there is correlation between
uh exponential increase in several illnesses which have become public
health problems in the US and the consumption of uh GM foods. And there
have been published papers that compare European public health status where
Europe has rejected GM crops uh for cultivation and even when it comes to
consumption if they allow some GM foods to be imported with labeling consumers
don't prefer eating those and the difference is stark between these two
continents between uh one large country on one continent as well as Canada and
uh Europe. So uh there is evidence if you're talking about genome editing
whether there is evidence. Look yes ma'am. Uh in the case of genome editing it is a
technology that is about to get introduced uh into our food chain. It
has not yet happened. Uh and therefore we are saying test first, regulate
first. That much has to happen. Why would you hesitate as a aware citizen in
demanding that regulation should be there? If you don't want to say no to uh
genome editing, at least ask for regulation. Some of us are very sure
that with sound regulation, the inherent lack of safety of some of these
technologies are is bound to show up in safety testing. Let there at least be
testing. Let there be regulation. I think we can all agree on at least that thing.
Whereas some of us will agree on saying no to genome editing because we have
understood what uh GM uh itself uh is.
Uh I'll move on to uh other participants. Uh thank you very much madam for your kind information.
Thank you. Thanks for joining. Uh can we move to uh Jacob please wait
uh two other uh people have raised their hands. Uh I don't know how to uh
pronounce G O D A R01. Please go ahead. Uh yes I am Mr. Ry God from Rajasthan.
matter. Okay. And well said by Suaz G and also by P Mishra and I also wants to add
something that in India or farmers are uneducated most lot of
farmers are and we need to educate them about the GM crops and their harmful
impacts and at a broad levels. First thing we want to do because problem is
there farmers need high yielding varieties and they don't know key are
these varieties are hybrids or GM uh crops are these they don't aware about
all these things. So firstly we need to educate them and secondly our government
should not introduce any kind of GM varieties in India. For that we have
like you have started campaigns like this and it should be at
a broad levels with a lot of farmers including with us
and educating them by uh uh any type in newspapers or by social
medias. uh there are lot of uh uh alternatives we have to educate the
farmers and uh one thing is more if any
varieties introduced already then it is very difficult to again remove from that
area correct so so in starting
and just started two varieties of patties introducing as today we
discussed here and at this level if we are able to stop then it is much better
and if it introduced then farmers will adapt it because they uh and for their
economic condition they also need to highly varieties they needs but which
varieties they adapt is that should be our native Indian varieties or should be
GM crops. for that it is need to aware that thank you
thank you uh Jacob uh and then we'll come to you uh
Jacob
hello yes Jacob
is I think uh they are trying to do is
property like
gene I talked to the scientist
and he was saying that they have applied for patent for a particular gene.
So the whole idea is to make it mainstream and then technologies uh and
then uh make more to sell seeds.
That's the whole idea I think behind this.
Jacob, we can't hear you. You seem to be in a train.
Jacob, we can't hear you. Can you just text?
Um, so [Music]
to my patience and all the essentially
uh he seems to be write in the chat instead. Yeah, he seems to be uh talking from a train. But
his point was about uh how we should understand uh this entire
um I mean conspiracy is one word but uh this push towards patented technologies
you know our farmers and our seed systems towards patented technologies
even public sector scientists applying for patents. So India does not legally
under the patents act allow patents on seed varieties but genetic material is
getting patented and de facto thereby seed varieties are in a sense patented.
Uh this is a story that began with uh bey cotton in India. So uh he's raising
a red flag uh on that issue. Um I saw uh
P Mishra you had your uh hand raised uh and I see a Chandra
Shaker who's put his video on. Did you want to say anything? We'll close this in the next few
minutes. Yes. Okay. I just uh wanted to add a small point which uh already now have been
discussed. uh since the question was asked uh so as a lay lay person I would like to add the
person was asking about uh what are the harmful effects so as you said allergic
reactions reactions so uh we have uh you
know bacteria in our gut so many useful bacteria
and uh the potential for this um antibiotic resistant genes as you have
discussed and uh in first presentation also it was discussed these are used as
markers during genetic modification and there there would be horizontal can we not cover things that have
already been said can we move on to uh anyone else who has
okay yeah sure yeah I mean uh we've really uh you know crossed our time limit we
were supposed to have closed this at 6:30 :30 and it's uh 45 minutes past
that time. Uh if there's nothing else uh what we will do is stay in touch with
you. Um and uh in the first mail uh we'll ask those of you who don't want to
receive mails to say so and we'll keep you out. uh we'll share the presentations and uh the recording link
and uh let's uh plan collectively uh what needs to be done. Uh
is this uh Zia uh from Havita?
It would be good if you could share a draft of writing letters to the CMS.
uh if the content is there then it gets faster. So many of you have recently signed on a
letter that we' uh written to uh Mr. Shivra Singh Johan and that letter is
present on indigminfo.org