Gene-edited soya shows promise in UK field trials

Gene editing could help overcome one of the biggest barriers to growing soya commercially in Britain – getting the crop to mature before autumn weather arrives. Corteva Agriscience is trialling gene-edited soya at its Wellesbourne Research Station in Warwickshire, with early results showing a striking shift towards earlier maturity.

The work is part of a five-year collaboration with French research institute INRAE, with much of the initial work being carried out by PhD student Manon Monfort.

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‘Beyond expectations’

For Dr Frank Röber, Corteva’s Europe Breeding Alliance lead, early results in the field are very promising. “It’s beyond expectations,” he says. “I have also seen them for the first time this year [in the field] and it really looks great.”

In early September, the Maturity Group 3 varieties – late-maturing types more suited to warmer US growing areas – were still flowering and had only small pods, while the gene-edited plants created from those maturity Group 3 germplasm had stopped flowering, were further advanced in pod development and had begun to turn yellow, a clear indication that senescence had begun. “That’s really proof of concept,” says Frank.

The challenge is that soya is a short-day plant, meaning its flowering is strongly influenced by day length. Long summer days at northern latitudes can delay flowering and push maturity into the autumn.

Britain therefore needs very early maturing varieties – typically 00 (double zero) or 000 (triple zero) – although later maturity groups generally offer greater yield potential.

Dr Nancy Podevin and Dr Frank Röber from Corteva Agriscience © Dare and Hier Media

Frank’s aim is to combine the two – the yield potential of later genetics with the earliness required in Britain. “If we can move the late yields into earlier varieties, this is my job,” he says.

Corteva used Crispr-Cas gene editing to target genes involved in controlling flowering.

The work focuses on genes that suppress flowering, with the edited material at Wellesbourne showing a substantial advance in earliness.

Dr Nancy Podevin, the company’s genome-editing policy lead, says field testing is crucial.

“You always need to go to the field,” she says. “That’s why this precision-bred organism legislation in England is so important. Everybody across Europe is doing this research in the lab, but if you’re not able to go into the field, it is quite useless.”

Corteva gene-edited crop in the field trial at Wellesbourne © MAG/Philip Case

Yield question remains

The next test is whether the early maturity can be combined with yield. Existing early varieties can suffer a yield penalty, and the researchers are trying to avoid that. “We’re trying to have a plant that produces as much as these late varieties, but flowers early,” Nancy says.

But even if the technology delivers on its promise, bringing a commercial UK soya crop to market will depend on overcoming agronomic and legislative challenges.