COLLEGE PARK, MD (September 9, 2021) – While gene editing technology has improved crop breeding and adaptation, the process of regrowing a plant from edited cells is costly, lengthy and unpredictable. Many popular crops are difficult to regenerate with existing methods. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) is providing a $664,000 grant through its Crops of the Future Collaborative to the University of Maryland (UMD) to develop a technology that can both edit a crop’s genes and speed up crop regeneration. Matching funds are providing a total $739,000 investment.
“The limitations of current regeneration methods are throttling the development of enhanced nutritional and agronomic traits,” said Dr. Jeffrey Rosichan, director of the Crops of the Future Collaborative. “Breakthroughs in gene editing are constrained if they don’t lead to viable, affordable crops. Applying proven gene editing technology to the problem of crop regeneration bottlenecks will more easily produce crops with enhanced nutrition and agronomic benefits.”
Currently, only a small number of plant species respond well to regeneration techniques that involve cell culturing—growing cells outside the plant in a suitable environment—though the reasons for this are unclear to researchers. Even among crops that regenerate, the process poses risks. Regeneration takes a long time, forcing researchers to predict which crops and traits will be in demand years in advance. Also, there are often multiple undesired and unpredictable changes to genomes that occur during the process.
Researchers led by Dr. Yiping Qi at UMD, Dr. Kranthi Mandadi of Texas A&M University and Dr. Randall Niedz of the US Department of Agriculture are developing a CRISPR-Combo system that will use CRISPR gene editing technology to kick-start the regeneration process. The CRISPR process injects RNA into cells to edit genes to promote desired traits in crops. With the CRISPR-Combo system, gene editing RNA will be combined with RNA that activates genes controlling growth. This will accelerate the cell culturing stage by making the cells more amenable to regeneration. The researchers are initially focusing on introducing traits that reduce allergen content in carrots, promote herbicide and disease resistance in potatoes and promote disease resistance in citrus. These crops were chosen in part because they are high-value food crops that face various impediments in breeding new varieties, and CRISPR-combo could help overcome these hurdles.
“Compared to conventional breeding, genome editing technologies can accelerate crop breeding with high precision, less time and cost,” said Dr. Qi. “This project aims to make genome editing in crops more efficient and successful, which will translate into improved crop production and enhanced nutrition in the produce we eat with sustainable inputs. This can help sustain a growing global population.”