Improving low-phosphate tolerance via tissue-specific CRISPR/Cas9 knockout to balance growth and stress responses in rice.
Wei G, Huang Z, Wang S, Zheng F, Yao J
Crispr
Rice paddies worldwide are quietly starved of phosphorus — and the fertilizer fix is running out — so finding a way to grow more grain with less of it is one of the quieter crises behind every bowl of rice.
Rice struggles to absorb enough phosphorus from depleted soils, but simply switching off the genes that limit phosphorus uptake causes the plant to take up too much and grow poorly. Researchers solved this by switching off those genes only in the plant's vascular system — the tubes that move nutrients around — leaving the rest of the plant's controls intact. The result was rice that absorbed more phosphorus when supplies were low, produced more grain, and grew normally when phosphorus was plentiful.
Key Findings
Vascular-specific CRISPR knockout of OsPHO2 increased effective tiller number and grain yield in phosphate-deficient paddies without disrupting growth in phosphate-sufficient conditions.
The tissue-specific approach maintained phosphate homeostasis — avoiding the toxicity and yield loss seen when the same gene is knocked out across the whole plant.
Field trials across multiple rice varieties (Nipponbare and Zhonghua 11) confirmed the improvement, validating the approach beyond a single genetic background.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used precise genetic editing to improve rice's ability to grow in low-phosphorus soils without the yield penalties seen in earlier approaches, by targeting the edit to vascular tissue only rather than the whole plant.
Abstract Preview
Balancing growth and stress responses is critical for improving crop stress tolerance. Inorganic phosphate (Pi) deficiency reduces agricultural yields. Plants have evolved a Pi-starvation response ...
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