Comparison before and after transformation of rice and potato (photo courtesy of the research team)
What will happen if a common protein in humans and animals is transferred to plants? The answer is: these plants have grown into luxuriant "super plants"!
On July 22, Jia Guifang’s group at Peking University, He Chuan’s group at the University of Chicago, and Song Bao’an’s group at Guizhou University published an important development in Nature-Biotechnology: the first development of the use of RNA epigenetic modification N6-methyladenine (m6A) is a new technology that directly improves plant biomass, yield and stress resistance
"This technology has the potential to change traditional breeding ideas and has great application prospects
Open up the “two veins of the governor and the governor” of plants
Open up the “two veins of the governor and the governor” of plants In 2010, He Chuan put forward the conjecture of "RNA epigenetics" for the first time, which caused significant repercussions in the field of life sciences
Peking University researcher Jia Guifang is the other corresponding author of this paper
After Jia Guifang returned to Peking University, he began to conduct RNA epigenetics research with plants as the main research object
The researchers selected two important economic crops, rice and potato, and introduced FTO to achieve demethylation of the RNA-modified m6A of these plants
Further research found that the overexpression of FTO protein can significantly promote rice tiller formation and root growth, enhance photosynthesis, and improve drought resistance
Subvert the traditional breeding model
Subvert the traditional breeding model Rice is a monocotyledonous plant, and the potato is a dicotyledonous plant.
"It means that this technology has universal applicability to plants
The researchers sent these extraordinarily large rice and potatoes to a special agricultural product inspection agency for composition testing.
In He Chuan's view, the important significance of this research is that it can be combined with various existing breeding models: "In the past, breeding has to focus on a certain plant, study its specific pathways, and find specific transformation methods
This technology can not only be used to increase the production of food crops
"Super plants" are here, are we ready?
"Super plants" are here, are we ready? "This work is very interesting.
In addition to rice and potatoes, he also expects that this technology will be applied to the improvement of trees, grasses and other cash crops in the future, making contributions to ecological improvement and environmental governance
At the same time, people will inevitably ask: Is such a technology safe enough? Can "super plants" be served on the table?
In this regard, He Chuan explained that the "super plants" transferred into the FTO protein, which is very common in humans and domestic animals, and through the editing of the apparent modification of plant RNA, it opened the channel for high yield and high biomass of plants
"Of course, we also look forward to the country's introduction of targeted approval standards to promote the promotion of this technology under the premise of safety regulations
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" He said
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Zhongkang also emphasized: “After every new technology appears, it takes time to improve its related regulations and standards
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As the first successful case of epigenetic breeding technology, this technology shows great application potential.
Of course , The application in production also needs to verify the variety in accordance with the procedures stipulated by the relevant national laws and regulations
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"
Related paper information: https:// style="text-indent: 2em;">https://
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