Italy’s first field trial of a gene-edited crop is in tatters, after vandals completely destroyed a test plot of experimental rice near the northern city of Pavia. No one has claimed responsibility for the destruction.
The small field trial of Arborio rice altered to make it more resistant to a common fungus was the country’s first outdoor experiment allowed under a recent loosening of the laws governing such studies. The rule change opened the way to field testing crops with precise modifications to their DNA made with the gene-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9. Trials using older forms of genetic modification are still virtually impossible to conduct in Italy.
“What happened is very tragic, especially for the colleagues who lost an important experiment,” says Silvio Salvi, plant geneticist at the University of Bologna and president of the Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics. But he is convinced the attack won’t derail similar projects in the pipeline. “None of us will feel scared by what happened,” he says. “There will definitely be no step back.”
After being replanted in the field, some of the plants have begun to recover, but “the experiment has lost its scientific value,” Brambilla says. She worries there are now too few plants to perform proper tests of the rice’s resistance to P. oryzae in the field.
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Several other experimental field trials of gene-edited crops are now being planned in Italy, including trials of wine grapes edited to be more resistant to disease while maintaining their appearance and flavor.
