The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has granted deregulation status to 12 of Cibus’ trait products. This brings Cibus’ total number of designated non-GMO trait products to 14, with the USDA having granted deregulation status to 2 Cibus traits earlier this year (see AgbioNews Jun 9, 2020). All 14 traits were developed using Cibus’ proprietary plant gene-editing technologies, known as the Rapid Trait Development System, which edits genes without integrating foreign genetic material. The decision to grant deregulation status to these traits will allow the company to proceed and continue with field testing and advance the traits to commercial development.

10 of the 12 newly designated traits are classified as input and agronomic traits for canola. These products are expected to be made commercially available over the next 5 years and include a pod shatter-reduction trait that provides farmers greater flexibility for harvest timing, particularly under adverse weather conditions; 8 traits that bolster a canola crop’s resistance to fungal diseases; and a trait for resistance to a novel herbicide.