Gene-edited Potatoes Show Enhanced Biotic and Abiotic Stress Resilience

Climate change continues to exacerbate various challenges in crop production. Rising global temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns necessitate solutions such as developing crops with enhanced resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. In a study published in Nature, the researchers aimed to improve the stress resilience of potatoes through gene editing.

The researchers identified a protein M1CUF4 called parakletos to demonstrate its effects in enhancing plant stress responses of potato and Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana). The results of the study showed that the overexpression of parakletos increased the severity and biomass of Phytophthora infestans infection. The study also indicates that parakletos suppresses immunity-related signaling pathways.

The study further investigated the effects of various stress conditions on potato and N. benthamiana plants with parakletos knockouts. The study found that the degree of infection was less severe in mutants infected by both P. infestans and Alternaria solani than in wild-type potato plants. In parakletos-silenced N. benthamiana plants, the severity of infection from bacterial pathogens Dickeya dantatii and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 HopQ1 was also lower compared to control plants.

The results also showed that the potato mutants with knocked-out parakletos were more tolerant to salt and drought conditions than wild-type plants. The findings of the study conclude that the loss of parakletos function in plants increases plant resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses without significant differences in terms of height, biomass, or other visible traits.

For more information, read the journal article from Nature.