PubMed · 2026-01-01
Researchers discovered that disabling a specific gene in rice called OsLAT5 makes the plant resistant to a common herbicide-like chemical, methylviologen. This finding offers a simpler, more reliable way to identify successfully gene-edited rice plants during crop improvement work.
Loss of the OsLAT5 gene alone (out of three tested candidates) was sufficient to confer methylviologen resistance in rice seeds, seedlings, and tissue cultures.
Three rice gene targets were tested using CRISPR/Cas9 — OsLAT1, OsLAT5, and OsLAT7 — but only OsLAT5 knockouts showed the desired resistance trait.
The lat5 loss-of-function mutation can function as a selectable marker at the seed germination stage, potentially replacing conventional antibiotic or herbicide resistance marker genes that occupy valuable T-DNA space.
