Gene-edited wheat gets a rice-like fragrant upgrade
Luo J, Yan L, Li J, Zhang C, Li S
Crispr
If you've ever wondered why fragrant rice costs more and smells better at dinner, this same aroma trick now works in wheat, meaning your future loaf of bread could carry that same toasty, popcorn-like scent.
Fragrant rice gets its popcorn-like smell from a compound called 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, and it happens when a gene called BADH2 gets switched off. Researchers used CRISPR gene editing to switch off a related gene in wheat, BADH1, either alone or together with BADH2, and found wheat plants that made over 11 times more of that fragrant compound than normal wheat. Even better, the plants still produced just as much grain as unedited wheat, showing breeders can add this trait without sacrificing yield.
Key Findings
Editing TaBADH1 alone, or both TaBADH1 and TaBADH2 together, via CRISPR/Cas9 produced fragrant wheat lines
Edited wheat showed up to 11.24-fold higher levels of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (the key aroma compound) compared to wild-type wheat
The fragrance trait came with no yield penalty, and the two genes showed asymmetric functional redundancy in controlling aroma
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used gene editing to create wheat that smells like popcorn or jasmine rice, by tweaking one or two genes that control a key aroma compound, without reducing how much grain the plants produce.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Creation of fragrant wheat by targeted mutagenesis of either BADH1 or both BADH1 and BADH2 using CRISPR/Cas9.
Editing TaBADH1 alone or TaBADH1 and TaBADH2 via CRISPR/Cas9 produced fragrant wheat with up to 11.24-fold higher 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline than the wild type without yield penalty, revealing asymmetric...
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Wheat is a group of wild and domesticated grasses of the genus Triticum. As cereals, they are cultivated for their grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known wheat species and hybrids include the most widely grown common wheat, spelt, durum, emmer, einkorn, and Khorasan or Kamut....