Harnessing diverse tRNAs and AI-guided mining for compact and efficient plant multiplex genome editing.
He Y, Ma Y, Wu Y, Tang X, Liu S
Crispr
It could accelerate the development of crops that resist drought, pests, and disease — meaning more reliable harvests and potentially lower food prices at your grocery store.
Inside every plant cell, tiny molecules called transfer RNAs help build proteins. Researchers figured out how to repurpose these molecules as tools to edit plant DNA in multiple places at once — like making ten precise cuts in a recipe book simultaneously. They also trained an AI to find thousands of these molecular tools that traditional methods had missed, giving scientists a much bigger toolkit for improving crops like rice and soybeans.
Key Findings
A new tRNA-based system can simultaneously edit at least 10 genomic locations in rice and soybean in a single experiment
AI-powered language models identified thousands of previously undiscovered tRNAs missed by conventional algorithms, dramatically expanding available editing tools
Novel tRNAs screened in Arabidopsis and rice outperformed the previously standard tool (AtGly-tRgcc) used in plant genome editing
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a faster, more efficient way to edit multiple genes in crop plants simultaneously by harnessing natural cellular machinery (tRNAs) and AI to discover thousands of previously unknown genetic tools. This expands the toolkit for creating better crops.
Abstract Preview
The widespread use of CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9) in plants highlights the need for compact and efficient multiplexed genome ...
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