Here’s How Gene-Editing Could Help Us Survive

As the risks of climate change are growing, the groundbreaking gene-editing tool CRISPR can alter the existing genomes of plants and animals to produce crops and livestock better suited for the ever-changing conditions.

“The potential is huge,” says Jennifer Doudna who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for her role in the invention of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. “It’s very exciting to see these products coming out, because they have real-world impacts that are incredibly important, especially as we’re dealing with the changing climate and with our expanding population.”

CRISPR can precisely remove specific parts of the DNA to create climate-resilient species without reverting to transgenic techniques. Indeed, this gene-editing technique steers clear from bioengineering, with resulting products that do not carry DNA from other organisms. Many genetic engineering companies use the technology to alter traits to help species survive or thrive in conditions fuelled by climate change. The precision breeding business Acceligen edited the offspring of two cattle to have shorter coats better suited to hotter temperatures; Innovative Genomics Institute is working on developing rice that can withstand drier conditions. Corn with shorter, stronger stalks that could reduce the loss of crops to powerful storms is in development, as well as novel cover crops able to sequester more carbon dioxide and produce biofuels, and animals that could resist zoonotic diseases like avian influenza increasingly spreading because of climate change.