GMO POLICIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN THE ERA OF GENOME EDITING

In recent years, immediate human interference with nucleic acid sequences has resulted in what is popularly known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The process, based on molecular technologies under the term genetic engineering, has added new information to the existing pool of genetic modifications produced from classical guided breeding or of spontaneous evolutionary occurrence under environmental pressure. On one hand, these products have been proposed as the future solution in food, medicine, health therapies including human genome modifications. On the other, they have also been accused that affect environmental stability and human health, especially in cases of DNA mix from distant species. Recent genetic engineering technologies, termed as genome editing, like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis (ODM), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) or directed evolution PCR, are also under examination, as they lead to GMOs. In comparison to their species of origin, GMOs produced with newer technologies contain genetic modifications closer to naturally existing nucleic sequences, being difficult their detection and evaluation. Present and future policies for GMOs are presented under an emerging technology revolution.