AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to August 2023. 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.

INDEAR’s HB4 soybean, which utilises the genetic event IND 410 (IND-ØØ410-5) has received Indonesian import approval for food use.

The trait was developed by Verdeca, a subsidiary of the Argentinian company Bioceres, and the Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral (Conicet-UNL) and utilises several genes to provide herbicide and drought tolerances. The Bar gene is present to confer glufosinate tolerance, as well as the homeodomain-leucine zipper 4 (HB4) gene, more commonly referred to as the HaHB4 gene, to provide drought tolerance. The HaHB4 gene was isolated from the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and under the control of a promoter, responds to water availability and the presence of the plant hormone abscisic acid, granting crops higher yields in water stress conditions by delaying plant senescence.

The HB4 soybean was likely created through microparticle bombardment, also known as the biolistic transformation, a fairly common method by which transgenes are delivered into plant cells or tissues. This is done by coating heavy metal particles, commonly gold or tungsten, with the exogenous material that you want to introduce to the plant before firing the micro-projectiles into the plant cells to introduce and integrate the desired genetic information into the plant. Successful genetic transformation is then screened for, often through the use of marker genes to demonstrate the proper insertion of the DNA transcript.

Genetically modified drought tolerance, an output trait, was first approved for cultivation in 2007 through Monsanto’s DroughtGard and has since seen an increase in popularity in response to rising instances of adverse dry weather conditions and their ability to improve efficiency and tolerance to abiotic stress. Whilst input traits reduce the operating costs associated with the growing of a crop, output traits often increase the value of the crop by altering characteristics of the product itself, such as altering the colour, oil, acid or lignin profile, delaying ripening, enhancing food or feed properties, or improving yield through drought or saline tolerance.

HB4 soybean was first granted cultivation approval in Argentina in 2015, followed by approvals in Brazil, the USA and Paraguay in 2019. In 2021, it received further cultivation approvals in Canada and South Africa. Despite unusually difficult planting conditions in Argentina HB4 Soybean is on track with half of the current seed multiplication area having been planted with new generation varieties, and the HB4 soybeans were also launched with growers in Brazil. Approval for use in food/feed use was granted in the USA in 2017, followed by Canada and China in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

HB4 wheat (technical name IND-ØØ412-7), is another GM trait developed by Bioceres Crop Solutions that uses the same HaHB4 sunflower gene to confer drought-tolerance. The first commercial production of HB4 wheat occurred in Argentina in 2022, with 0.05 million hectares planted, representing 0.78% of the total Argentinean wheat area. Bioceres received cultivation approval in 2020 for Argentina, Brazil and approval in 2023 in Paraguay. Currently HB4 wheat is seeking approval for cultivation in Australia in 2024, is currently undergoing field trials in Uruguay.