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    Tomatoes Tamed Again With CRISPR: Gene Editing Opens The Way To Healthier Crops, Finds

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    Han Yi
    Researchers have used CRISPR genome editing to rapidly domesticate tomatoes and ground cherries in just a few years, something that took thousands of years through traditional breeding methods. The CRISPR-edited tomatoes have larger fruits with higher levels of nutrients like lycopene compared to standard commercial varieties. Similarly, ground cherries were edited to increase fruit size and make the plants less sprawling so the fruits do not fall off as easily. This fast-track domestication technique could help improve existing crops and turn thousands of wild plants into new crops to make the global food supply healthier and more resilient to climate change.

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    Tomatoes Tamed Again With CRISPR: Gene Editing Opens The Way To Healthier Crops, Finds

    Uploaded by

    Han Yi
    42 views1 page
    Researchers have used CRISPR genome editing to rapidly domesticate tomatoes and ground cherries in just a few years, something that took thousands of years through traditional breeding methods. The CRISPR-edited tomatoes have larger fruits with higher levels of nutrients like lycopene compared to standard commercial varieties. Similarly, ground cherries were edited to increase fruit size and make the plants less sprawling so the fruits do not fall off as easily. This fast-track domestication technique could help improve existing crops and turn thousands of wild plants into new crops to make the global food supply healthier and more resilient to climate change.

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    Researchers have used CRISPR genome editing to rapidly domesticate tomatoes and ground cherries in just a few years, something that took thousands of years through traditional breeding methods. The CRISPR-edited tomatoes have larger fruits with higher levels of nutrients like lycopene compared to standard commercial varieties. Similarly, ground cherries were edited to increase fruit size and make the plants less sprawling so the fruits do not fall off as easily. This fast-track domestication technique could help improve existing crops and turn thousands of wild plants into new crops to make the global food supply healthier and more resilient to climate change.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views1 page

    Tomatoes Tamed Again With CRISPR: Gene Editing Opens The Way To Healthier Crops, Finds

    Uploaded by

    Han Yi
    Researchers have used CRISPR genome editing to rapidly domesticate tomatoes and ground cherries in just a few years, something that took thousands of years through traditional breeding methods. The CRISPR-edited tomatoes have larger fruits with higher levels of nutrients like lycopene compared to standard commercial varieties. Similarly, ground cherries were edited to increase fruit size and make the plants less sprawling so the fruits do not fall off as easily. This fast-track domestication technique could help improve existing crops and turn thousands of wild plants into new crops to make the global food supply healthier and more resilient to climate change.

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    of 1

    For new stories every day, visit newscientist.

    com/news

    Tomatoes tamed again with CRISPR


    Gene editing opens the way to healthier crops, finds Michael Le Page

    IT TOOK at least 3000 years to Biotechnology, doi.org/cvfz).


    domesticate the tomato. Now two “We will taste them when the
    teams, one in China, the other in plants are mature”, in a few weeks,
    Brazil, Germany and the US, have says Caixia Gao at the Chinese
    done it all over again in less than Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
    three years – only better in some
    ways because their tomatoes are
    more nutritious than those we New commercial crops
    currently eat. Meanwhile, Joyce Van Eck at the
    This approach, which relies Boyce Thompson Institute in
    on the CRISPR genome-editing New York state and her colleagues
    technique, could not only are using the same approach to
    improve existing crops, but could domesticate the ground cherry
    also be used to turn thousands of (Physalis pruinosa) for the first
    wild plants into new crops. A third time (Nature Plants, doi.org/cvfx).
    team in the US has already begun Ground cherries are already
    to do this with a relative of the sold to some extent in US farmers’
    tomato called the ground cherry. markets, but they are hard to
    This fast-track domestication produce because the plant has a
    could help make the world’s food sprawling growth and the small
    supply healthier and far more fruit drop off when ripe. Van Eck’s
    resilient to climate change and team edited the plants to increase
    diseases, such as the rust fungus fruit size, make growth more
    devastating wheat crops. compact and stop fruit falling off.
    ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/REUTERS

    “This could transform what “There’s potential for this to be


    we eat,” says Jörg Kudla at the a commercial crop,” says Van Eck.
    University of Münster in But taking the work further would
    Germany, a member of the be expensive because of the need
    international team that worked to pay for a CRISPR licence and get
    on the tomato. “There are regulatory approval.
    50,000 edible plants in the world, This approach could boost the
    but 90 per cent of our energy domestication. The two teams of Commercial tomatoes may become use of many obscure plants, says
    comes from just 15 crops.” tomato researchers have used this packed with more nutrients Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury
    Wild tomatoes, native to the knowledge to reintroduce these Laboratory in the UK. But it will
    Andes mountains in South changes from scratch while thought to be good for us. The be hard for them to get so popular
    America, produce pea-sized fruit. maintaining or even enhancing international team boosted it they become new staples, he says.
    Over many generations, people the desirable traits of wild strains. instead. Wild tomatoes have twice The three teams are already
    transformed the plant by picking Kudla’s team made six changes. as much lycopene as cultivated eyeing other plants that could,
    mutants with desirable traits such For instance, they tripled the size ones. The newly domesticated in the words of Van Eck’s team, be
    as larger fruit. of fruit by editing a gene called one has five times as much. “catapulted into the mainstream”,
    But when a single mutant is FW2.2, and got more tomatoes per “They are quite tasty,” says including foxtail, oat grass and
    plucked from a larger population truss by editing another called Kudla. “And very aromatic.” amaranth. By choosing wild
    for breeding, genetic diversity is MULT (Nature Biotechnology, The researchers in China plants that are drought or heat
    lost. And the desirable mutations doi.org/cvf2). re-domesticated several strains tolerant, says Gao, we could create
    sometimes come with unwanted The historical domestication of of wild tomatoes with desirable crops that will thrive even as the
    traits. For instance, the tomatoes tomatoes led to lower levels of the traits lost in domestication. In planet warms.
    grown for supermarkets have lost red pigment lycopene, which is this way they managed to make a Kudla didn’t want to reveal
    much of their flavour. strain resistant to a disease called which species were in his team’s
    By comparing the genomes “There are 50,000 edible bacterial spot race. They also sights, because CRISPR has made
    of food plants with their wild plants in the world, but created another strain that is it so easy. “Anyone with the right
    relatives, biologists are working 90 per cent of our energy more salt tolerant and one with skills could go home to their lab
    out what changes occurred in comes from just 15 crops” higher levels of vitamin C (Nature and do this.” ■

    6 October 2018 | NewScientist | 7

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