Engineering plant architecture in the ornamental species Eustoma grandiflorum by knockout of strigolactone biosynthesis.
Yamaguchi K, Tomizawa E, Kanematsu N, Sakaguchi K, Kasai T
Crispr
That lush, multi-stemmed bouquet flower you love at the farmers market — lisianthus — could soon come pre-branched from the nursery without any pinching or staking, giving home gardeners the full, floriferous look without the fuss.
Lisianthus (a popular cut flower) normally grows tall and sparse unless you intervene. Researchers found a way to flip off the plant's internal 'grow tall and straight' signal using a precise genetic tool, causing the plants to stay short and sprout many more side branches on their own. The result is a naturally bushier plant with more flowers — and nothing else about the plant's beauty was affected.
Key Findings
CRISPR-edited lisianthus plants reached only 47% of normal height compared to unedited plants.
Branch number increased 5.0-fold and flower bud formation increased 1.7-fold over wild-type plants.
Three independent edited plant lines showed mutations in all copies of the target gene, confirming high editing efficiency with no reported loss of ornamental quality.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used CRISPR gene editing to create compact, bushy lisianthus plants by switching off a hormone that normally suppresses branching. The edited plants grew to half the normal height while producing five times more branches and nearly twice as many flower buds.
Abstract Preview
The targeted mutation of the strigolactone biosynthetic gene, CCD8, through genome-editing CRISPR-Cas9 induces dwarfism and enhanced branching in Eustoma grandiflorum. In ornamental plants, modifyi...
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Eustoma, commonly known as lisianthus or prairie gentian, is a small genus of plants in the gentian family. They are native to warm regions of the southern United States, Mexico, Caribbean and northern South America. This genus is typically found in grasslands and in areas of disturbed ground.