Have you ever enjoyed a delicious bowl of rice and thought, “I wish more rice crops didn’t die of disease”? Well, if you’ve ever had that thought, I’ve got some good news for you! Scientists have been using CRISPR gene editing to make rice more resistant to diseases.
Researchers by identifying a special strain of rice that showed resistance to various pathogens. They then used CRISPR-Cas9, to isolate the specific gene responsible for this resistance which was RESISTANCE TO BLAST1 (RBL1), which plays a crucial role in phospholipid biosynthesis. By tweaking this gene, they were able to enhance the rice plants’ natural defense mechanisms, making them resistant to diseases like rice blast, which is a fungal disease.
This connects with what we learn in AP Biology about genes and how they’re involved in protein synthesis.When a cell makes a protein, it starts with transcription, where the information in DNA, which is made up of genes, is copied onto mRNA. Then, the mRNA goes to the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum, where it’s read by ribosomes. These ribosomes make the protein according to the instructions in the mRNA. In the case of the RBL1 gene, this means making a phospholipid. After the protein is made, it heads to the Golgi apparatus, where it gets some final changes based on the mRNA’s instructions before going to its final destination.
Wow, I really thought this was really interesting research especially to me personally because I love rice and think CRISPR research is really fascinating. Reading about this research also makes me wonder what are the different applications of CRISPR outside of agriculture?
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