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Quick, name an orange fruit that tastes like a tomato cross with a tropical treat like pineapple or mango, with hints of vanilla and a hint of sourness. Stumped? Do not worry if you are not familiar with Groundhog. The chances are good that you have never had one, because it is not an easy fruit to grow and harvest. But we are about to see it finally become a dominant culture and end up in the local supermarkets, thanks to gene editing. Science has once again crossed.
In an article published Monday in Plants Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have successfully used the CRISPR gene editing tool to make harvesting a more attractive crop crop for farmers and a fruit more appealing to consumers. The new discoveries are good news, not only for shrimp, but for all those who wish to popularize all kinds of orphan crops: plants that could have a local or regional footprint but can not be found on the mass market because production problems.
"We are very excited about this work," said Joyce Van Eck, director of the Plant Biotechnology Research Center at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, New York. "We can see a real application for this, not only for the fruits of the earth, but also for other crops."
For thousands of years, humans have relied on quality breeding methods to domesticate and grow wild plants that are better adapted to agriculture and consumption. Sometimes we can stumble on breakthroughs in just a few generations. Sometimes it takes thousands of years. The world market only adopts some orphan crops (quinoa is one of the most prolific recent examples).
The advent of gene editing tools such as CRISPR, capable of easily cutting unwanted DNA fragments and replacing them with another, if they wish, allows to transform a plant into a more ideal crop almost instantly, that is, to feed more people and provide more nutrition, resist drought and natural disasters, and simply taste better.
When the CRISPR arrived on the scene, Van Eck and his colleagues used it to map out and tinker with the tomato genes that determined the characteristics of plant architecture, such as growth and size .
"It was such a powerful tool," says Van Eck. Based on what they were able to do with the tomatoes, she and Lippman quickly explored what CRISPR could do to improve orphan crops.
Enter Physalis pruinosa, the cherry, native to Central and South America, but which has grown in many parts of the Western Hemisphere, including New York State. Earth bays are full of potential as a popular bay: they are nutritious, tasty and produced throughout the growing season. You can plant them in the soil in late May or early June, and they will continue to bear fruit until the first frost. In the few markets where the fruits of the earth are sold, this is a novelty in fashion.
"There are a lot of good features about it. With the improvements, we felt that this plant could potentially become a new specialty food culture in the United States, "said Van Eck. "For us, it was really exciting, not just for biology and genetics, but also because it had applications in the real world."
But land cherries remain orphan crops for good reason. "It has this habit of wild growth, sprawling, overgrown weeds," taking up a lot of room, says Van Eck. "From an agricultural point of view, it's not very desirable." It's also a remarkably small fruit, on a cherry tomato scale. Finally, fruit falls to the ground, often before it matures, which creates collection problems and hampers the value of production for farmers who choose to grow it.
Van Eck and his team wanted to tackle directly the genes that favored these three problems. Fortunately, they already had a genetic roadmap for tomatoes from earlier studies, which they could also use as an informal guide to the genes for the thievery. Using CRISPR, they targeted a gene governing automatic pruning, to prevent the growth of the shoots of the plant once it has bloomed and to promote taming. They also targeted a gene known as CLAVATA 1 to increase the size, producing 25% heavier fruit. Work is still underway to change the genes that favor premature shedding, but given the success of the team on the other two fronts, Van Eck and his colleagues seem to be close.
Nevertheless, do not expect fruits of the earth to hit your local Whole Foods anytime soon. We must first verify that this technique does not create unexpected effects (read: dangerous) on other parts of the plant. In addition, if the research team uses CRISPR for free under a university license, it will have to buy one, or associate with a company or investor with money, if it plans to market its new and improved nursery factories. It is too early to say in which direction things will evolve.
And do not expect that the same techniques that have worked with the coring cultures are effective for other orphan crops. Van Eck mentions that while it was relatively easy to target the genes of the bakery, the same technique proved problematic when it was applied to bilberry, a close relative. This simply proves that, while CRISPR is very versatile, each culture still requires special attention for genetic transformation.
Nevertheless, the new results demonstrate that gene editing, in general, can address the problems of orphan crops that otherwise would have a much larger presence in the marketplace. Simply having this toolkit allows farmers to look beyond existing traditional foods and expand growth opportunities for farmers and consumers.
"We had a lot of fun with this project," says Van Eck. "And we are really looking forward to seeing what we can do."
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