A novel approach in plant genetics promises to herald a new frontier in crop improvement that would usher disease-resistant plants, that too with enhanced nutrition. This is set to come about after successful studies by Seoul National University researchers who introduced virus-induced genome editing (VIGE) techniques, redefining crop-breeding methodologies.
This is considered a transformation in agricultural biotechnology after the team of researchers tried the new method out on Solanaceous crops. The new approach simplifies genetic modification besides making it faster — an advantage over traditional processes of crop genetic modification which is not only slower but also faces challenges of regulatory requirements, and financial and technical hurdles.
Their study included two VIGE strategies — one with tobacco rattle virus (TRV) vector delivering single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) into a transgenic tomato line expressing Cas9 gene, and the second employing the potato virus X (PVX) vector to simultaneously introduce Cas9 and sgRNAs. The researchers found that these eliminated the need for traditional transgenic lines. Conventional genome editing techniques are dependent on generating stable transgenic lines that express Cas9/sgRNA gene modules through extensive tissue culture, which consume a lot of time, besides being labour-intensive.
Both the new approaches involved deep sequencing and heat treatments which enhanced genome editing efficiency, and yielded mutation rates of 40.3% with TRV and 36.5% with PVX. This is considered remarkable for simplicity and resource efficiency, besides their high efficacy. The VIGE techniques demonstrated the potential for widespread use in other Solanaceous crops, underscoring their versatility and impact on plant-breeding science.
The two approaches, published in journal Horticulture Research on November 17, 2024, leveraged viral vectors to streamline genome editing without labour-intensive tissue culture steps, raising hopes of accelerating development of much more sustainable, resilient crops which can be more nutritious food sources.