CRISPR technology is now laying a foundation in the agricultural world, trying to help corn growers improve the speed, versatility, and output of their crops. It has been difficult to implement CRISPR technology thus far, as the cells walls of plants, at a microscopic level, are particularly tough to penetrate. Fundamentally, CRISPR “…consists of enzymatic scissors called Cas9 that a guide made from RNA shuttles to an exact place in a genome.” The difficulty with plants cells is that, in comparison to animal cells, the extra-rigid cell walls make it immensely difficult for the guide RNA (gRNA) and the Cas9 to reach their destination on the genome. In response to this problem researchers have come up with what is described as an “inelegant” solution to this problem where they “…splice […] CRISPR genes into a bacterium that can breach the plant cell wall or put them on gold particles and shoot them with what’s known as a gene gun.” Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work in the crucial corn varieties where it is needed. However, a team of researchers in North Carolina, Timothy Kelliher and Quideng Que of Syngenta, in Durham, North Carolina have come up with an even more ingenious solution to deal with the stubborn plant cell walls. Haploid induction “…allows pollen to fertilize plants without permanently transferring ‘male’ genetic material to offspring. The newly created plants only have a female set of chromosomes – making them haploid instead of the traditional diploid. Haploid induction itself can lead to increased breeding efficiency and higher yielding plants.” This same method has been found to work in wheat and even Arabidopsis, “…a genus of plants related to cabbage, broccoli, kale, and cauliflower.” Yet again, sadly, CRISPR faces another drawback as scientist not that “…if it were done in the field, the changes wouldn’t spread because the male genome in the pollen – which carries the CRISPR apparatus – disappears shortly after fertilization.” However, there is still much hope for CRISPR technology, and it is without a doubt that we are making big strides into the future with gene editing technology.

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