Engineering herbicide-resistant sorghum with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated adenine base editing.
Zhou J, Li R, Wang Z, Liu S, Shi L
Crispr
Sorghum grows in the driest, hardest fields where other grains fail, and cleaner herbicide tolerance means farmers in those marginal lands can control weeds without destroying their crop.
Researchers edited a single gene in sorghum — a drought-tough grain crop — so the plant shrugs off a common class of weed killers. They used a tool called base editing, which works like a molecular pencil eraser, swapping one tiny letter of the plant's DNA without pasting in any outside genetic material. The resulting plants grew normally in every other way, meaning this could become a practical breeding tool for farmers.
Key Findings
Adenine base editing of the SbALS gene conferred strong herbicide resistance in sorghum
Edited plants were transgene-free, containing no foreign DNA insertions
No significant differences in agronomic traits (growth, yield characteristics) were observed between edited and unedited plants
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used a precise gene-editing tool to make sorghum resistant to herbicides, producing plants that look and grow normally but can survive weed-killing chemicals — without leaving behind any foreign DNA.
Abstract Preview
An adenine base-editing system was established to precisely modify the sorghum SbALS gene, generating transgene-free mutant plants. These plants exhibit strong herbicide resistance, with no signifi...
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Sorghum bicolor, commonly called sorghum and also known as broomcorn, great millet, Indian millet, Guinea corn, jowar, or milo, is a species in the grass genus Sorghum. It is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial. It grows in clumps that may reach over 4 metres (13 ft) high. The g...