Turning off one gene made wheat taller with bigger grains
D'Attilia C, Bonarrigo M, Tarkowská D, Buffagni V, Hayta S
Crispr
The pasta wheat behind your favorite noodles could get a yield boost from a single, precisely edited gene, no new chemicals or breeding decades required.
Wheat plants grow partly because of a hormone called brassinosteroid, and a gene called IBH1 normally acts like a brake on that hormone's effects. When researchers used CRISPR to delete that brake gene in durum wheat (the kind used for pasta), the plants grew taller, their leaves tilted more, and their grains got bigger and heavier, all without hurting the plant's ability to reproduce. It's a clean example of tweaking one hormone 'switch' to reshape a crop plant's whole body.
Key Findings
CRISPR-Cas9 knockout of the IBH1 gene in durum wheat increased plant height, internode elongation, and leaf inclination
Edited plants showed larger grain size and increased thousand grain weight with no significant fertility differences
Knockout triggered coordinated upregulation of BR signaling genes BRI1 and BZR1 along with downstream regulators ILI1 and PRE1, with selective remodeling of brassinosteroid biosynthesis intermediates rather than a general hormone increase
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used gene editing to switch off a single gene in durum wheat that normally holds back growth hormone activity, producing taller plants with bigger grains and no loss in fertility. The approach offers a precise way to boost wheat yield traits without broadly altering hormone levels.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
CRISPR-Cas9 knockout of IBH1 fine-tunes brassinosteroid metabolism and modulates plant architecture and grain traits in durum wheat.
Brassinosteroids (BRs) are essential steroidal plant hormones that regulate cell elongation, vascular differentiation and reproductive development, thereby shaping plant architecture and grain yiel...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Durum, also called pasta wheat or macaroni wheat, is a tetraploid species of wheat. It is the second-most cultivated species of wheat after common wheat, although it represents only 5 to 8% of global wheat production. It was developed by artificial selection of the domesticated emmer wheat strain...