Scientists Develop DNA Scissors For Plants To Eradicate Whole DNA

A plant’s genetic code may be altered to make it more resistant to pests, illnesses, and harsh weather conditions using the CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors. To inhibit the production of certain cell types, researchers have recently found this approach to delete the whole DNA of those cell types. This will also aid our knowledge of how plants evolve.

Plants’ DNA, which serves as a transporter for genetic data, may be altered using molecular shears. Increase the plant’s resilience to illness and environmental effects. Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and Cas constitute molecular cutters that can detect and cut certain DNA sequences. They became the first in the world to rearrange an entire chromosome 2 years ago.

An expert team was able to improve on this approach. A new level of progress has been attained using CRISPR-Kill, which can kill particular plant types of cells and inhibit the production of certain plant parts.

The thale cress model plant’s additional root systems & petals were the focus of the scientists’ studies (Arabidopsis thaliana). CRISPR-Kill flowers no never produced petals or additional roots once the cells were removed, but control plants continued to develop normally.

With CRISPR-Kill, the genome is trimmed numerous times, as opposed to other methods like cytotoxins or laser radiation. A genome is made up of a specific set of chromosomes, each of which contains a specific number of genes. Plant development may be better understood by investigating what occurs when a specific cell type is removed.

Long-term, this approach might benefit food and pharmaceutical manufacturing by preventing the plant from producing cells that create poisons, for example. Besides that, the method might be used in multi-cellular creatures to modify certain tissues.

The research was published in Nature Communications.