New Gene Editing System Improves Daily Rice Flowering

Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center and partners introduced a new method for gene editing rice called Transgene Killer CRISPR (TKC), used to improve daily flowering dynamics in rice. Their findings are published in Plant Physiology Reports.

Flowers of rice plants open at specific times of the day, making them closely linked with high-yield traits in hybrid rice. Thus, the researchers developed the TKC system to modify the EMF1 gene, which is involved in controlling the rice plant's internal clock for the daily flowering schedule. Results showed that the TKC system was highly effective, altering the target gene in over 80% of the treated rice plants.

The gene-edited rice plants exhibited two significant changes compared to the unedited plants. First, the edited plants opened their flowers two hours earlier than usual. Second, the rice seeds produced by the edited plants were heavier than those produced by the unaltered ones. Other important traits remained comparable between the unedited and the edited plants, indicating the precision of the new system in targeting desired traits.

Read more findings in Plant Physiology Reports.