Speaking about real-world application of CRISPR to improve crops, Valentine Otang Ntui discussed the different genome editing strategies he developed for bananas, a major staple food in East Africa. …

One of the biggest threats to banana farming in the region is Banana Xanthomonas Wilt, Ntui says. It is a bacterial disease that can wipe out entire banana fields and cause up to 100% crop loss. To solve this problem, Ntui and his team [including Leena Tripathi] used CRISPR to identify and remove a specific gene in the banana plant that helps the bacteria infect it.

When they tested the edited bananas in the greenhouse, they found that the CRISPR-generated plants were resistant to the disease, while the unedited ones became infected.

CRISPR has also been used to improve plantains, a type of banana widely grown in West Africa, Ntui noted. He explained that plantains suffer from a viral disease that stays dormant in the plant’s DNA and only activates under “unfavorable conditions” like drought or heat.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here