AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to January 2024. Expanded details on these recently approved traits, as well as for approvals dating back as far as 1992, can be found on AgbioInvestor’s GM Monitor website.

Corteva’s maize genetic event DP202216 (DP-2Ø2216-6) has received food/feed import approval in South Africa.

The DP202216 genetic event contains the zmm28 and pat genes, with zmm28 regulating the expression of genes associated with floral organ development, while the pat gene confers tolerance to the herbicide glufosinate.

DP202216 was developed by Dow Agrosciences (now Corteva), utilising agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of maize tissue using T-DNA, containing the desired genetic information, to transfer a segment of T-DNA into host cells. Successful genetic transformation was then screened using the Phosphomannose Isomerase (PMI) enzyme to demonstrate the proper insertion of the DNA transcript. DP202216 is classed as an output trait rather than a typical stacked trait, despite the presence of herbicide tolerance, due to the overarching feature being that of enhanced yield.

Soybean varieties containing DP202216 have so far received cultivation approval in three countries, starting with Canada and the USA in 2020, and followed by Brazil in 2023. Indonesia has approved DP202216 for food use only (2022), with seven other countries having approved the genetic event for both food and feed use. The majority of approvals come from North America, Central and South America and the Asia Pacific regions, while none are currently from Europe. This latest approval from South Africa represents the first country from the MEA region to grant it import approval.