This wild plant could be the next strawberry

Prepare the earth (Physalis pruinosa) for traditional agriculture, Zachary Lippman, investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Boyce Thompson Institute, Joyce Van Eck, and their colleagues combined genomics and genetic modification to rapidly improve traits such as fruit size, plant shape and flower production.

Their results show that it is possible to take a virtually wild plant and bring it closer to domestication in a few years. The team describes his work, a shortcut around traditional breeding techniques, on October 1, 2018, in the journal Natural plants.

"I firmly believe that with the right approach, the earth cherry could become an important crop of berries," said Lippman, plant scientist at the Cold Spring Harbor Lab. Some scientists might consider the idea as a scope, he adds. "But I think we are now at a place where technology allows us to reach."

New tastes

For producers, new crops represent a chance to diversify and offer more options to consumers. The next big bay has been missed by food producers for years, says Lippman. Bottom grapes are attractive candidates as they are drought resistant and have an attractive taste. You have to taste the fruit to grasp its complexity, says Lippman, who describes it as tropical but sour, sometimes with hints of vanilla.

Earth cherries (also known as "inshell cherries" and "strawberry tomatoes") are native to Central and South America and belong to a group of plants called orphan crops. They are grown as small crops, regionally or for subsistence. Orphan crops are rarely part of traditional agriculture because of limitations such as low shelf life or low productivity.

Improving these plants for large-scale production through breeding represents a huge investment in time and money, says Lippman. It sometimes takes between a decade and thousands of years to domesticate a wild culture. Researchers and producers need to understand the genetics of the plant, its adaptations and how to grow it.

This is why few orphan cultures become familiar names. Quinoa, the high-protein fluffy grain that is now standard in supermarkets, has climbed into the agricultural ranks, but other orphan crops like peanut, teff and cowpea remain relatively unknown in outside their home regions.

Some consumers may already be familiar with the land – as its parent, the tomatillo, the orange fruit is covered with a thin paper wrap. They sometimes show up at American farmers' markets where "they sell like hotcakes," says Lippman. (Martha Stewart has a recipe that suggests to sprinkle them with olive oil). However, land crops are not easy to grow. Now, Lippman thinks that the traits he introduced with Van Eck could well position the fruit of a large-scale production.

An unconventional approach

The researchers' work explains how genome editing can confer an agricultural advantage on orphan crops such as ground cherry. Scientists are currently using genome editing to create desirable traits in traditional crops such as corn, soybeans and many others. But until now, no one had used this technique to reinforce the desirable characteristics of orphan crops.

To prepare the store for the store shelves, Lippman and Van Eck had to address some of the plant's shortcomings. The researchers wanted to soften its herbaceous form, its larger fruits and its more prolific flowers. They used a three-pronged approach to solve the problem: the team sequenced a groundhog genome sampling, discovered how to use the CRISPR genome modification tool in the plant and identified the genes underlining the undesirable characteristics of the groundhog.

This genetic work was based on previous studies that Lippman and others have already done on tomato. By knowing which genes control certain tomato traits, researchers have discovered and manipulated these same genes in the far-field.

Then, Lippman wants to refine the land features that they have started to improve and manipulate additional features such as the color and flavor of the fruits. He notes that the selection of traditional plants will always be necessary to perfect the cherry as a traditional crop. And he can not say exactly when the fruit might arrive on the market. The dissemination of a new variety will require first of all navigation in the CRISPR intellectual property rights.

Lippman hopes that his team's work will inspire researchers to examine other orphan cultures with well-studied parents and examine how these crops also have a potential for rapid domestication.

"It's about demonstrating what is now possible," he says.

Explore more:
Plant breeders develop new CRISPR application to remove yield barriers in crops

More information:
Zachary H. Lemmon et al, Rapid Improvement of domestication traits in orphan culture by genome editing, Natural plants (2018). DOI: 10.1038 / s41477-018-0259-x