Scientists engineer crops to survive a key weed-killer class
Crispr
The tomatoes and corn in your garden or on your plate increasingly depend on herbicide-tolerant breeding to stay ahead of superweeds that have shrugged off older chemicals like glyphosate and dicamba.
There's a type of weed-killer that blocks an enzyme called HPPD, which most plants need to make certain protective pigments. The catch is that many crops are just as sensitive to it as the weeds, so scientists are borrowing tougher versions of this enzyme from bacteria, inducing helpful mutations, and using CRISPR gene editing to give crops their own built-in resistance. The goal is a herbicide that kills weeds but leaves the crop standing, even as other weed-killers stop working.
Key Findings
Three main genetic strategies exist for HPPD tolerance: inserting microbial HPPD genes, mutagenesis to create new resistant HPPD alleles, and CRISPR-Cas9 precision editing
HPPD inhibitors remain effective against weeds that have already evolved resistance to glyphosate, glufosinate, and dicamba, with few documented cases of weeds resisting HPPD inhibitors so far
Protein engineering and directed evolution are being used to design HPPD enzyme variants with lower sensitivity to the herbicide
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists are engineering crops to resist a common class of weed-killers called HPPD inhibitors, using tools ranging from bacterial genes to CRISPR editing, so farmers get another effective option as weeds evolve resistance to older herbicides like glyphosate.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Genetic approaches to impart HPPD tolerance in crop species: progress and prospects
Herbicides that inhibit 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) are widely used for broad-spectrum weed control; however, the sensitivity of many crop species limits their application, underscor...
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Crop-improvement refers to the systematic enhancement of plant varieties through selective breeding, genetic modification, and biotechnological approaches to develop cultivars with superior agronomic, nutritional, or environmental traits. This field is essential for addressing global food security,
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