PubMed · 2026-03-10
Scientists are using plant viruses as delivery vehicles to carry gene-editing tools directly into crops, skipping the slow, costly lab transformation process that has long bottlenecked CRISPR's use in agriculture. A key recent milestone: heritable edits achieved in hexaploid wheat, one of the world's most important and genetically complex food crops.
Virus-induced genome editing (VIGE) has advanced from proof-of-concept in model plants to practical application in agricultural crops.
A recent breakthrough achieved heritable genome edits in hexaploid wheat, a crop with a highly complex genome that has resisted conventional CRISPR delivery methods.
VIGE bypasses plant transformation and tissue culture, the two biggest bottlenecks limiting CRISPR's use across diverse crop genotypes.
