Genetic Engineering and Food Security

Food security is one of the most important challenges with respect to the climate change
and population growth. Investment in agricultural research in particular in the field of plant biotechnology can be considered as a powerful tool to comfront, these challenges. Historically, farmers used to harvest their best crop and save it as “seed” for planting in the next season. Plant breeders used the genetic knowledge to improve plants using different techniques. However, in spite of admirable achievements in producing more quality food in less land, traditional plant breeding techniques suffer from different limitations. Genetic engineering that can overcome the mentioned problems is considered as a complementary but more powerful tool to assist plant breeders to comfront their challenges and it is considered the fastest adopted technology in the history of agriculture. Recent advances in genetic engineering such as the advent and application of CRISPR-Cas9 and TALEN for genome editing and gene drive have revolutionized already existing revolutionary technology. These techniques can be used for the improvement of organisms without leaving any transgene inside the final product and hence are required less stringent regulatory procedures in different countries. “Synthetic Biology” provides the opportunity to design from scratch metabolic pathways to produce entirely new products never existed or produce already existing products in closed rooms with new methodologies. Increasing demand and market for these new products guarantee the successful mainstream of this new technology into food and industrially used material for years to come. In this article, these technologies, their applications for attainment of food security, safety considerations and future prospects and challenges, they may be facing, are reviewed.