One New Jersey teenager recently used gene-editing technology to create a rice plant that could be more resilient and easier to grow, Science News Explores reported.
High school senior Nandini Rastogi, who is only 18 years old, showcased her breakthrough at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. She used CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that scientists are using to edit specific traits into plants, to insert growth-promoting properties into rice plants.
While the plants already had the capability to trigger these biological processes — such as elongating their roots in search of more water — in times of stress, Rastogi made it so that the processes were active at all times, creating plants that grew more quickly and became more resilient.
Making the challenge even more difficult was the fact that Rastogi was unable to work on live plants. "Because of strict government regulations, I'm not actually allowed to perform gene edits on live plants," she said. Instead, she edited cells that were removed from the plants and then observed them to see if certain proteins were activated, which they were.
"That tells us that if we were to perform the edits on the live plant, there would be an increase in stress tolerance," Rastogi said.
Pollution, planetary overheating, and human-caused changes to weather patterns are all making growing crops increasingly difficult. Certain regions that had once been ideal for growing a crop may now be too hot, while many other regions have been hit with massive droughts that have wiped out food supplies.
As a result, scientists around the world are using CRISPR gene-editing technology to create versions of common crops that are able to withstand harsh conditions. These include fruits that can combat drought, tomatoes that need less water, and plants that can withstand frost, to name a few.
While it is still vital that we reverse the course of the planetary overheating and air pollution that is threatening the global food supply — mainly by moving away from dirty energy sources such as gas and oil and toward clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar — more resilient crops could become very important in the near term.
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