AFRICA- A new study reveals that CRISPR technology can be harnessed to edit genes in certain strains of rice, potentially paving the way for enhanced disease resistance.
Rice, a crucial staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa, faces a significant threat from the Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV), which has the potential to devastate rice crops across the continent.
The study, published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, outlines researchers’ efforts to develop resistance to RYMV, a disease that poses a serious threat to food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
Laurence Albar, one of the researchers, highlighted the impact of RYMV, stating, “RYMV has an impact on food security and poverty of smallholder farmers,” with between 10% and 100% of rice yield regularly lost to the disease in the challenging environment where many of Africa’s rice producers operate.
While there are currently three resistance genes to RYMV, mutations in just one of these genes enable a rice strain to achieve resistance. However, the commonly used and higher-yielding rice species, Oryza sativa, exhibits extremely low resistance.
The study aimed to overcome this challenge by utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to edit one of the resistance genes, OsCPR5.1, in the Asian Japonica rice variety Kitaake.
According to Albar, the researchers observed promising results in greenhouse experiments, with no negative side effects on plant development.
However, further confirmation through field experiments in relevant agroecosystems is necessary before considering the large-scale deployment of the engineered varieties.
The ultimate goal is to test more African rice varieties for their ability to produce resistance and provide African rice farmers with edited, resistant rice varieties.
Albar stated, “If the absence of negative side effects is confirmed, these varieties can be transferred to smallholder farmers to be deployed on a large scale to avoid RYMV disease and associated yield losses, thus contributing to lifting people out of poverty and food insecurity.”
Notably, the Healthy Crops project, an international research consortium, focuses on enhancing yields and preventing diseases in smallholder African and Asian rice farmers.
One of the researchers, Wolf B. Frommer, highlighted the success of the project in developing resistance to Bacterial Blight (BB) in addition to RYMV, offering potential solutions to multiple challenges faced by rice farmers in these regions.
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