First English crop to receive a Precision Bred Organism (PBO) marketing notice for England's new regulatory pathway.
A gene-edited barley line, created by Rothamsted Research has become the first crop in England to receive a Precision Bred Organism (PBO) marketing notice confirmation under the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 and its accompanying 2025 Regulations.
The confirmation, reviewed and approved by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), allows the crop to progress towards wider evaluation and eventual commercial deployment.
The barley was developed by Peter Eastmond's team using CRISPR to introduce small edits into genes responsible for breaking down plant oils. By reducing this lipid degradation process, the plants accumulate higher levels of fat in their vegetative tissues, producing a higher-energy forage crop for ruminant livestock.
“This barley has been designed to increase the energy density of forage by boosting lipid levels in the plant. Higher-energy feed can improve livestock productivity and offers a promising route to reducing methane emissions from ruminant agriculture. Receiving the first precision-bred marketing notice for a crop in the UK is a major milestone and reflects many years of research into plant lipid metabolism and gene editing at Rothamsted,” said Peter Eastmond, Rothamsted Research.
The barley is being evaluated through the PROBITY initative (Platform to Rate Organisms Bred for Improved Trait and Yield) (Platform to Rate Organisms Bred for Improved Trait and Yield), led by the British On-Farm Innovation Network and funded by Defra's Farming Innovation programme, which is delivered by Innovate UK.
PROBITY is testing precision-bred crops directly with farmers and supply chain partners, and also includes precision-bred wheat varieties from Rothamsted and the John Innes Centre targeting grain quality and yield improvements.
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