Vine genetic heritage at risk from patents, IFV geneticist warns

Loïc Le Cunff is a geneticist at the Institut français de la vigne et du vin (IFV). On October 7, during a technical day at the Institut agro in Montpellier, he illustrated the new genomic techniques (NGTs) applied to the grapevine. These techniques can enhance the value of the thousands of genes accumulated over 150 years in the Vassal grape variety collection, a genetic heritage of major importance. The central point of his talk was not technical but legal. There is a risk that innovations derived from this heritage end up blocked. For the wine industry, the question determines who will be able to work on base varieties in the future. It also applies to those who import and select wines from native varieties in Europe.

A reservoir of genetic diversity built over 150 years

The Vassal collection represents a reserve of genes that the industry can query to respond to climate and health challenges. The value of the reservoir grows with the arrival of new genomic techniques, which make it possible to precisely identify the useful traits hidden in the thousands of preserved varieties. The genetic heritage accumulated over 150 years becomes the raw material of future selection.

The examples brought by Le Cunff to Montpellier give concrete form to this potential. The Vitirama project made it possible to identify new sources of resistance to downy mildew in several grape varieties. It also found them in wild vines never exposed to the European inoculum.

The second example concerns flavescence dorée. Chromosome 12 of the magdeleine noire is associated with a lower sensitivity to the phytoplasma that causes it. The corresponding genetic marker makes it possible to identify promising individuals more quickly within crossing programs.

The risk of patents on genetic heritage

The downside, for Le Cunff, is the risk that innovations emerging from NGTs will be blocked, that is, locked up, by private patents. A patent on a trait or on a selection technique can prevent other breeders from using that resource. It thereby turns an asset that is today accessible to everyone into a monopoly.

Le Cunff declares himself ready, in his words, to “set the dumpsters on fire”. He wants to prevent private interests from appropriating a heritage that is today free. The grapevine genetic heritage is today accessible to all, and those who defend it say so explicitly.

Plant variety rights as a safeguard of the common good

The instrument Le Cunff defends is the plant variety right (PVR). For more than 60 years it has allowed a breeder to oppose the commercial use of his variety. The difference with a patent is substantial. Plant variety rights protect those who create a new variety but keep plant genetic resources as a common good. These resources remain freely accessible for creating other varieties. A recent report by the Académie d’Agriculture de France describes precisely this balance, consecrating its character as a common good.

The IFV geneticist’s judgment on NGTs remains conditional: the new genomic techniques can produce excellent results. But only if accompanied by guarantees that ensure the community of breeders can continue to work on the varieties.

NGTs can make it possible to do beautiful things, provided they are accompanied by guarantees that assure us we can keep working, insists Loïc Le Cunff.

For the European reader who follows variety breeding, the lesson is clear. The discussion is not about the technique but about access. Whoever controls the markers controls the speed of genetic improvement. The Montpellier day marked the position of those who want control to remain distributed, not concentrated.

Sources:

• NTG et patrimoine viticole : qui profitera des gènes conservés à… | vitisphere.com