Image Credit: created with Open AI, Dall-E
Developing improved perennial crops like fruit and timber trees has long been hampered by slow laboratory growth and lengthy life cycles. In a breakthrough study to be published in Nature Communications, UMD Plant Science Professor Dr. Yiping Qi and a multi-lab collaborative team demonstrated how their CRISPR-Combo tool can dramatically speed up gene editing and plant regeneration in perennials. By combining gene editing with targeted gene activation across potatoes, citrus, wild strawberries, and poplars, the team has opened new doors for rapidly developing disease-resistant and higher-yielding crops.
