Targeted knockout of a host peroxisomal peptidase confers field resistance to maize lethal necrosis.
Jung M, Wen Z, Humbert S, Lu F, DeLeon A
Crispr
The corn in your grocery store and the staple food keeping millions of East African families fed is under serious threat from a viral disease that can wipe out entire fields, and this breakthrough offers a gene-edited path to stopping it.
Maize lethal necrosis is a devastating plant disease caused by two viruses attacking corn at the same time, and it has been destroying crops across East Africa for years. Researchers discovered that a specific protein inside corn cells — normally found in a tiny compartment called a peroxisome — is actually being hijacked by the viruses to help them spread. By using gene-editing tools to disable that protein, they created corn plants that the viruses can no longer exploit, giving the plants real-world resistance to the disease.
Key Findings
A major resistance gene was mapped to chromosome 6 of maize and encodes a peroxisomal peptidase (protease enzyme) that viruses exploit during infection.
Targeted knockout of this host gene using gene-editing conferred field-level resistance to maize lethal necrosis, demonstrating effectiveness under real agricultural conditions.
The resistance mechanism involves disrupting the virus's ability to use a host plant protein, representing a novel 'loss-of-susceptibility' strategy rather than a traditional resistance gene approach.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used gene-editing to knock out a gene in maize (corn) that a deadly viral disease exploits, creating plants that resist maize lethal necrosis — a crop-destroying illness devastating farms across sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract Preview
Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) is a severe disease caused by the combined infection of maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and a potyvirus, most often sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). This disease serio...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Maize, also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern ...