Biotech Updates

Argentine Scientists Develop Non-Browning Potatoes Using CRISPR

May 23, 2018

Researchers from the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) Balcarce in Argentina were able to modify the gene that causes browning in potatoes.

According to Sergio Feingold, director of INTA's Agrobiotechnology Laboratory, using CRISPR-Cas9 they were able to generate a gene editing machinery within a potato cell that specifically targets the chosen gene and changes its genetic sequence. They focused on the polyphenol oxidase gene, which causes browning in potatoes when they are cut and exposed to air.

"This achievement is the basis of new breeding techniques that allow us to do the same thing that was done for years through conventional breeding, but more quickly and accurately," Feingold said.

Read the original post (in Spanish) at the INTA website