Government releases guidelines to speed up development of plant varieties, reduce time of approval

The government has released guidelines for a safety assessment for a regulatory review of genome-edited plants that aims to speed up development of plant varieties and reduce the time taken for approval by authorities. Genome editing is a group of technologies to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome.

The Department of Biotechnology said these standard operating procedures (SOPs) shall be applicable to all organizations involved in research, development and handling of the Genome-Edited Plants under SDN-1 and SDN-2 categories from the date of notification.

The SOPs provide regulatory road map, requirements for research and development and meet the threshold for exemption of Genome-Edited Plant(s) under the SDN-1 or SDN-2 categories.


Site-Directed Nuclease (SDN)-1, a site-directed mutagenesis (the production of genetic mutations) without using a DNA sequence template while SDN-2 is a site-directed mutagenesis using a DNA sequence template.

Considering huge growth and advancement in genome editing research and applications in the field of agriculture, the department said these guidelines and SOPs will be very valuable resource documents for the country.

These guidelines and SOPs are expected to speed up development of plant varieties and to reduce the time of approval. New plant varieties with improved traits would contribute towards increasing Farmer's income.

Overall, this regulatory streamlining will bring transformational change in product development and commercialization and thereby will contribute to agenda for Atma Nirbhar Bharat of Centre, the DBT said.

This has also paved the way for India as emerging global power in Genome-Edited Plants based technology and its applications. PTI UZM CK