Gene edit makes canola resist a costly white mold fungus
Lin C, Long Y, Miao X, Zhang Z, Liu D
Crispr
White mold rots the stems of canola, sunflowers, beans, and lettuce in home and market gardens alike, and this edit shows plants can be trained to shrug it off instead of relying on repeated fungicide sprays.
Canola plants normally have a built-in cleanup crew, called the N-degron pathway, that breaks down certain proteins. Researchers used CRISPR to disable one gene in that crew, and the change made the plants much tougher against Sclerotinia, the fungus behind white mold that rots stems and slashes yields. Turning off a plant's own recycling switch, it turns out, can flip on stronger disease defenses.
Key Findings
Knocking out the PROTEOLYSIS6 gene in the N-degron pathway boosted Brassica napus resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.
CRISPR/Cas9 was used to precisely disable the target gene in canola.
The edited plants showed reduced disease symptoms compared to unedited controls, linking the N-degron pathway to fungal defense.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used CRISPR gene editing to switch off a protein-recycling pathway in canola, and the edited plants fought off white mold far better than normal ones. This points to a way to protect one of the world's major oilseed crops from a costly fungal disease without spraying more chemicals.
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