New Zealand
October 13, 2024
In 1994, Jia-Long, a scientist at Plant & Food Research, was the first scientist in the world to successfully create a genetically modified Royal Gala apple. At the time, apples were New Zealand’s largest horticultural export, earning around $320 million each year, with Royal Gala accounting for about a quarter of apple export revenue – second only to Braeburn. It was reasonable to anticipate that, should genetic modification be accepted in New Zealand, being able to apply the technology in apples would be imperative.
Due to New Zealand’s strict regulations and a national decision not to incorporate genetic modification into crop breeding practices, that first groundbreaking Royal Gala plant – which was herbicide resistant - was eventually destroyed. In fact, none of the genetically modified plants Jia-Long has developed since have been taken outside of research facilities, although the knowledge he’s generated has been incorporated into Plant & Food Research’s breeding programmes to help screen parents and seedlings for key traits.
But with the planned changes to New Zealand’s gene technology regulations, it’s feasible to imagine that gene edited crops might, in the near future, be grown by New Zealand growers and eaten by consumers worldwide. Jia-Long is now applying his knowledge to developing gene editing techniques and understanding how it may be applied.
Thirty years ago, transforming an organism through genetic modification was a relatively new science, and it took Jia-Long several years to create a reproducible method for Royal Gala. The method was similar to those developed previously by British and Australian scientists, who had successfully modified two apple varieties – Greensleeves and Delicious – as well as a commonly used apple rootstock. However, each variety had its own unique combination of factors that were required for success, a feature known as genotype-dependent transformation, that could only be determined through trial and error.
Since that ‘Eureka’ moment – which he remembers celebrating with a bottle of Champagne in the team leader’s office – Jia-Long estimates he’s transformed apples more than 100 times. His methodology has been used by researchers around the world in their experiments, with the paper describing the method cited in academic literature more than 260 times. Over the years, the method has been refined and improved, and has provided a foundation for developing genetic modification methods for other apple varieties and other plant species.
Jia-Long is now repeating the process of developing a new method, but this time using gene editing. His long history of developing and refining genetic modification techniques means he has much greater knowledge of the factors that can influence the success of his experiments than he did back in 1994. And whilst the technology is different, the process of testing the different combination of factors needed to successfully grow a gene-edited cell into a full plant is very familiar.
Jia-Long’s current work is focused on the genes associated with desirable fruit characteristics, including size, shape, seed number and the chemical compounds known to be good for human health. He’s looking at whether he can gene edit multiple traits in a single plant to create a new variety with lots of appeal for consumers, and considerably faster than would be possible through traditional breeding programmes. His research is building valuable knowledge that will help the horticulture sector make decisions about how or if it may choose to use gene editing.
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