Biotech Updates

CRISPR Used to Develop Low Glutelin Rice for Phenylketonuria and Kidney Disease Patients

September 14, 2022

Researchers from Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Yangzhou University in China developed low glutelin rice using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. Their findings are published in Plant Science.

Chronic kidney disease and phenylketonuria patients are required to consume rice with low glutelin content. Thus, one of the goals of rice breeders is to come up with high-yielding rice varieties with low glutelin and delicious taste.

The research team used CRISPR-Cas9 to simultaneously edit up to 7 genes involved in the production of glutelin in rice. Results showed that two out of the nine edited lines had significantly lower glutelin content, which is even reduced than low glutelin content cultivar LGC-1. These two lines also have similar agronomic characteristics and viscosity properties as the wild-type, indicating their potential as new varieties or parental materials for breeding low glutelin rice.

Read the research article in Plant Science.


You might also like: