Gene-edited Tobacco Plants Are Now Seedless and Pollenless

Researchers from North Carolina State University produced normally-grown tobacco plants that do not have pollen and seeds. Their findings may be used for further research in other types of plants.

Plants that are unable to produce pollen have a trait called cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). This trait may be due to aberrations within the mitochondrial genome. The NC State researchers and their colleagues from Precision BioSciences and Elo Life Systems used a unique strategy to test if the tobacco plant could generate the CMS trait.

The researchers took the atp1 mitochondrial gene and transferred it to the nucleus after putting it under the promoter's regulatory control. They predicted that this would enable the transplanted atp1 gene to be expressed in all plant cells other than those in charge of pollen production. The team then utilized gene editing tools to completely remove the atp1 gene in the mitochondria.

The tobacco plants were also cross-fertilized using pollen from a nearby normal plant. As a result, the plants created small and hollow seeds, which are similar to those of well-known seedless fruits like grapes and watermelons. Since their technique was successful, the results of the study may lead to more efficient ways of creating hybrid seeds to optimize crop productivity or to initiate seedlessness in certain fruit species that do not have the desired trait.

Read the journal article in Frontiers in Plant Science for more information.