Snipping a segment from rice's own genes raised yields by up to a quarter

University of Chicago researchers boosted rice yields 20–25% and improved drought tolerance by trimming part of a gene the plant already carries.

Researchers at the University of Chicago report that trimming a section from a rice plant's own gene raised yields by roughly 20 to 25% while improving tolerance to drought and heat. The study, led by Professor Chuan He with first author Liudan Jiang, was published July 23 in Nature Genetics.

The work builds on the lab's earlier finding that inserting an animal gene called FTO into plants increased yield and root length. This time the team wanted a similar boost without adding foreign genes. Plants lack a direct FTO equivalent but carry related genes, ALKBH9 and ALKBH10, whose action on chromatin is held back by so-called intrinsically disordered regions. Removing the C-terminus of that region let the proteins act and promote growth. The researchers propose using base editing to delete this segment from the plant's existing genes rather than introducing anything from outside.

A gene-editing approach that lifts yield and stress tolerance without foreign DNA matters for food abundance under a warming climate, where drought and heat increasingly cap what farmers can grow. Editing native genes may also face a lighter regulatory path than transgenic methods in some places.

Still, the honest limits are real. The team says it does not yet fully understand how the change drives growth and resilience. Yields were measured in described tests, not confirmed under large-scale field conditions. The strategy is being tried in other crops, but results beyond rice have not been reported.

Source: Phys.org