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How CRISPR could yield the next blockbuster crop

Scientists are attempting to rapidly domesticate wild plant species by editing specific genes, but they face major technical challenges — and concerns about exploitation of Indigenous knowledge.
  1. Michael Marshall

    1. Michael Marshall is a science journalist in Devon, UK.

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A scientist next to the wild-type rice plant Oryza Alta, the line used in de novo domestication, at Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing.

Plant geneticists in China are targeting genes in the wild rice Oryza alta to make it easier to farm. Credit: Hong Yu and Jiayang Li

In the space of just a few years, Jiayang Li is trying to achieve something that once took people centuries. He wants to turn a wild rice species into a domesticated crop by hacking its genome. And he is already part of the way there.

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Nature 625, 230-232 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00015-w

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