Scientists finally crack the code for editing pea genes
Singh H, Kumar P, Sharma V, Singh J, Swiecicki WK
Crispr
The peas in your garden or on your plate have been notoriously hard to genetically improve, but this new lab technique could speed up breeding for better disease resistance, yield, or nutrition in future pea varieties.
Peas are surprisingly difficult to grow from tissue in a lab and even harder to genetically edit, which has slowed down efforts to improve the crop. Researchers figured out the best growing conditions and plant tissue type to use, then successfully used CRISPR gene-editing tool to switch off a specific gene in the pea plants with remarkable precision, hitting up to 97% success in some lines. This gives plant breeders a reliable new toolkit for engineering better pea varieties down the road.
Key Findings
Dicotyledonary node (DCN) explants achieved 100% shoot bud induction and produced 39.70 shoots per explant, outperforming embryonic axis and nodal segment explants.
Transformation efficiency using Agrobacterium ranged from 23.33% to 90.00% in DCN explants and 6.66% to 93.33% in embryonic axis explants across 10 pea cultivars.
CRISPR/Cas9 editing of the PsPDS gene achieved mutation frequencies of up to 97% in independently generated plant lines.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a much more efficient way to regenerate and genetically edit pea plants, using CRISPR to successfully disable a target gene in up to 97% of edited plant lines. This breakthrough removes a major technical bottleneck that has long made peas resistant to precise genetic improvement.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Efficient in-vitro regeneration and transformation for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing of phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene in pea (Pisum sativum L.).
The present study addresses optimization of in-vitro regeneration via direct organogenesis and Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, enabling efficient multiplex CRISPR/Cas9-based genome e...
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Pea is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable.