CRISPR Rice Shows Enhanced Tolerance to Salt Stress

A group of researchers from Nanchang University in China discovered a rice gene called OsNF-YC5 that plays a role in salinity tolerance. Their findings are published in Gene.

Rice is a staple crop in many countries but is vulnerable to saline stress. Using CRISPR-Cas9, the researchers disrupted the OsNF-YC5 gene in rice plants. This led to mutant plants with greater tolerance to salt stress than wild-type plants. The mutant plants also had improved sensitivity to the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA). ABA is involved in various plant stress responses, such as salinity tolerance.

According to the researchers, disrupting the OsNF-YC5 gene enhances rice salinity tolerance by boosting the activity of CAT enzymes and fine-tuning the expression of ABA-dependent and ABA-independent genes involved in the salt stress response. This discovery could help develop new salt-tolerant rice varieties to help farmers produce more food in saline soils.

Read more results in Gene.