Author
Jim Gaffney, Corteva Agriscience
Redeat Tibebu, University of Minnesota
October 10, 2020
Jim Gaffney, Corteva Agriscience
Redeat Tibebu, University of Minnesota
Over the last 20 years, genome sequencing has become increasingly faster and affordable, with genome sequences of thousands of species – plants, animals, insects, bacteria, viruses – now curated in multiple, open access databases available to all scientists worldwide with internet access. The open access database system, as it stands today, offers fair and equitable sharing of GSD, promotes sustainable use of biodiversity, while also contributing to conservation of biological diversity. Yet this free and unencumbered access to GSD may now be threatened by policy-makers looking to regulate and monetize GSD in the hopes of creating more “fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources.” Unencumbered, open access to GSD contributes directly to improved breeding programs, more vibrant seed systems, greater agricultural productivity, and greater resilience of crops and farmers in the face of changing environmental conditions. We ask that policy makers and politicians move with great care and caution when considering regulation and monetization of GSD, beyond what currently exists for international sharing and partnering of GSD. Public research and emerging economies have the most to lose if GSD is further controlled, especially if the global scientific community is not consulted.
Combinations of the mononucleotides cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), and thymine (T) are the building blocks of life, lining up in unique orders, or sequences, thereby forming the genome, or genetic sequence data (GSD), specific to each organism. Over the last 20 years, genome sequencing has become increasingly faster and affordable, with genome sequences of thousands of species – plants, animals, insects, bacteria, viruses – now curated in multiple, open access databases available to all scientists worldwide with internet access. For example, just three of these plant focused databases, Legume Information System, SoyBase, and Maize GDB, serve 2300 to over 5200 users each month, accessed from nearly every country. (Figure 1). In a paper recently published in the journal Global Food Security, a group of international authors explain the value of GSD, and why the current system of open access to GSD is critical to discovery, innovation, and more sustainable global agriculture and food systems.1
Figure 1. Users by country and by month of select crop genomics databases. Figure compliments of Carson Andorf and Lisa Hartman, USDA/ARS.
Genomic sequence data, and broad, open, and unencumbered access to it, allows scientists all over the world the freedom to leverage the vast genetic diversity of crop varieties and their wild and weedy relatives, to enable a more thorough, precise, and rapid breeding process. The combination of GSD and new breeding technologies under development will continue to create opportunities for achieving greater food security, a balanced diet and more climate-resilient crops. The open access database system, as it stands today, offers fair and equitable sharing of GSD, promotes sustainable use of biodiversity, while also contributing to conservation of biological diversity – the three objectives of the Conventions on Biodiversity (CBD).2
Yet this free and unencumbered access to GSD may now be threatened by policy makers looking to regulate and monetize GSD in the hopes of creating more “fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources.”3,4,5 Negotiations under the CBD, Nagoya Protocol, and International Treaty have reached a stalemate and policy makers may use GSD as a bargaining chip or compromise. In so doing, they may further threaten achieving the objectives of the CBD and limit the value of GSD. Funded by governments and philanthropic donor agencies, the open access databases have grown in size and sophistication. Curators, most often in public research and academia, have developed training tools and easy-to-use search applications to make the sequence data widely available. Scientists from both the public and private sectors have been the contributors of sequence data. The value of GSD, resides not in the raw nucleotide sequences provided in the databases, but in the evaluation, interpretation, and application of these data to generate information which is then applied to develop improved crops, vibrant seed systems, and greater food security. Developing this value requires creativity, resources, ingenuity, and importantly, collaboration amongst scientists. Value is created when more productive and resilient varieties of crops are integrated into a breeding pipeline and subsequently delivered to farmers. More rapid delivery of improved crops and cropping systems is one of our best opportunities to mitigate and adapt to climate change and help farmers become more resilient in the face of ever-changing cropping environments.
The value created through a paid access and benefit sharing scheme for GSD, however well-meaning, would pale in comparison to the monetary and non-monetary value created when GSD is unencumbered by regulation and broadly available for innovation and discovery.
Numerous examples exist of how GSD is being utilized in crops important to Africa and Asia and serve to reinforce our points made above. Cassava, with 60 percent of global production occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), is threatened by viral and bacterial disease and has numerous “anti-quality” traits, storage and nutritional problems.6,7,8 The availability of sequence data for this crop combined with other plant breeding innovations has resulted in improved starch quality, higher levels of vitamin A in the roots, iron and zinc biofortification, and brown streak disease resistance.9,10,11,12 Work continues on other diseases and to improve storage of cassava roots.
Sorghum is likewise an important food security crop, feeding around half a billion people in SSA and Asia alone. Sorghum has amongst the largest libraries of GSD available of any African indigenous crop.13,14,15,16,17,18,19 These data have been used to evaluate numerous agronomic and quality traits, including grain size, heat tolerance, starch content, nitrogen use efficiency, and anthracnose resistance.20,21,22,23,24,25,26
Pearl millet, like sorghum, is indigenous to Africa and a resilient crop in the face of high heat and drought conditions. The reference genome of pearl millet was published with 38,579 genes and made available to plant scientists anywhere.27 The information extracted from this database has been used to establish marker assisted breeding. Marker-trait associations have been linked to root traits, plant height, yield, grain quality, tolerance to water deficit and heat, and resistance to an ever-changing disease and insect pest spectrum.28
A final example is provided by how GSD could transform breeding efforts in Ethiopia’s national crop, Eragrostis tef. When considering area under cultivation, the number of farmers growing tef, and its importance to the diet, tef is far and away the most important crop in Ethiopia.29 Yet it lags behind most other cereals in Ethiopia in terms of productivity and yield and has numerous constraining agronomic characteristics.30,31,32 Until very recently, a draft or completely sequenced genome (GSD) was unavailable for tef, and tef improvement programs had to rely on direct phenotypic selection and conventional breeding, which is slow and cumbersome. The valuable genetic diversity of tef has therefore remained relatively hidden and unknown, and while helpful, the sequenced variety “Dabbi” is one of hundreds of farmer-used varieties sown in Ethiopia.33 The availability of openly accessible GSD on greater numbers of farmer-preferred tef varieties would revolutionize tef improvement by allowing application of molecular breeding and advanced plant breeding approaches for achieving enhanced yield potential and beneficial agronomic characteristics. Ultimately, millions of farmers would achieve greater productivity and sustainability, over 100 million Ethiopians would have a more reliable and lower cost supply of tef, and pressure on land resources would be reduced.
Unencumbered, open access to GSD contributes directly to improved breeding programs, more vibrant seed systems, greater agricultural productivity, and greater resilience of crops and farmers in the face of changing environmental conditions.
We ask that policy makers and politicians move with great care and caution when considering regulation and monetization of GSD, beyond what currently exists for international sharing and partnering of GSD. Public research and emerging economies have the most to lose if GSD is further controlled, especially if the global scientific community is not consulted. Administrative, financial, and legal barriers will quickly weigh down research organizations making determinations as to GSD value, point of origin, accessibility and with whom negotiations for access must be conducted. Many of these tasks would take time and be difficult, if not impossible. It is imperative to find ways to help scientists innovate while lowering legal and financial barriers to innovation, which will contribute to the most productive path forward to equitable use of genetic resources and GSD.
While we have focused this discussion on plants and agriculture, human health and public safety is also directly impacted by open access to GSD. In the early days of the current coronavirus pandemic, scientists quickly and easily submitted and accessed viral GSD to multiple open access databases, with freedom to operate and limited legal implications.34 This access allowed scientists to rapidly gain a better understanding of the virus, develop diagnostic tests, and envision a path on how best to develop vaccines and other preventive measures.
Maintaining open access and the use of GSD will serve to enable research collaborations, maximize returns on investments and ensure creation of value to scientists, farmers, and society. This also allows for greater scientific collaboration, enabling and strengthening a global network of scientists. Crops like tef, sorghum, cassava, and pearl millet will become more productive in regions where food security is most at risk. The opportunity exists to create a new era of discovery and investment with GSD.