For Cibus, regulatory clarity isn’t just a box to check—it’s a turning point.
The San Diego–based agricultural technology company with operations in Canada just announced that two of its gene-edited canola trait products have received the all-clear from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The ruling: they’re not regulated articles. Translation? These traits can move forward without the heavy regulatory baggage typically attached to genetically modified organisms.
That’s a big win for Cibus—and for plant breeders everywhere looking to solve agriculture’s most persistent challenges without triggering controversy or delays.
At the heart of this breakthrough is Cibus’ proprietary Rapid Trait Development System, according to the company. Unlike traditional GMOs, which rely on inserting foreign DNA into a plant’s genome, RTDS enables precise edits without any recombinant DNA. It’s gene editing with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, the company says.
“We are encouraged by USDA-APHIS’ broad designation,” said Dr. Peter Beetham, Cibus Co-Founder and Interim CEO. “This is yet another example of how regulatory frameworks continue to evolve to support the promise of gene-editing technologies.”
With the USDA’s green light, these canola traits can now move toward commercialization in the U.S. without the costly and time-consuming regulatory hurdles typically associated with GMOs. That accelerates innovation—and directly benefits farmers, Beetham says.
One of the most promising applications of Cibus’ gene-editing tech is its Sclerotinia resistance trait in canola. Known as white mold, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a devastating fungal pathogen that costs North American canola farmers dearly—reducing yields by 7–15% annually, with individual infected plants seeing losses of up to 50%.
Cibus’ trait offers multiple modes of action, giving farmers a more durable defense while reducing their dependence on fungicides.
“New tools are critically important as climate change continues to shift the distribution and prevalence of plant diseases, such as Sclerotinia. Importantly, we expect the application of our traits will extend to other crops like soybean, expanding benefits of these traits to additional acres and geographies,” says Greg Gocal, Cibus co-founder.
The U.S. is not alone in embracing a more nuanced view of gene editing. The European Union is edging closer to a regulatory framework that would treat some gene-edited crops as conventional varieties—so long as the changes could have occurred naturally or through traditional breeding.
Canada has already ruled that gene-edited crops will not face additional regulatory hurdles so long as they don’t contain foreign DNA and don’t express a commercially viable herbicide tolerance trait. Cibus applauded that decision last year.
“With the latest guidelines from (the Canadian Food Inspection Agency), Canada continues to demonstrate its global leadership in the implementation of pragmatic, science-based policy for the regulation of plants developed using gene editing,” the company said at the time.
