Easy, Fast, Efficient Technique for Rewriting Plant Genome

“The speed and simplicity of CRISPR have momentous implications for agriculture: The process could lead to plants that can withstand what an increasingly overheated nature has in store. It could also result in a more nutritious yield, from less plant…. CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool that helps us adapt plants to new environments by fine-tuning their own genetic traits, using their own genes from plants they’d naturally breed with, such as their wild versions. As the tool targets a tiny segment of a plant’s DNA, the plant stays the same species—technically, even the same genotype. As scientists see it, the technology respects a plant species for its evolutionary capacity to thrive over eons, while helping it evolve more quickly to adjust to today’s environment. We are only putting our foot to the accelerator of natural plant processes.”

Newsweek: “GMO Scientists Could Save the World From Hunger, If We Let Them”. May 2015

photo: Farmers tend to a maize field where they plant GMO crops, in Bonkhorstspruit, South Africa. JONAS BENDIKSEN/MAGNUM