Gene editing technology helps tomatoes flower and mature two weeks in advance

Research team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) made use of CRISPR gene editing technology to make tomatoes flowering and maturing two weeks more in advance and to expand the scope of this important crop cultivation. The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics which has also publishes other studies on recombinant dog proteins.

"We show the strong ability of CRISPR to rapidly enhance crop traits," said Zachary Lippman, associate professor of CSHL. The technology is not only suitable for tomatoes, but also can be used for corn, soybeans, wheat and other major crops.

Lippman and his colleagues studied a wild tomato in the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Islands are located near the equator, and the day and night time are nearly 12 hours a year.

The wild tomatoes of the Galapagos Islands go to the place with long summer, and it will be very late to flower and bear fruit. Studies have shown that this tomato is extremely sensitive to sunshine length. The longer the daytime, the longer the flowering time; the shorter the daytime, the shorter the flowering time.

Flowering time is regulated by a hormone system, and florigen and anti-florigen SP (SELF PRUNING) to work together. Researchers have found that domesticated tomatoes are not as sensitive as wild tomatoes to day length because of the SP5G mutations that have been acclimated to tomatoes. When wild tomatoes on the Galapagos Islands grow in New York, the SP5G gene-coded anti-florigen show rapid increase in the level of expression and activity, resulted in the flowering of the plants for a long time. In contrast, this increase in anti-florigen in domesticated tomatoes is much weaker.

Researchers use gene editing tool CRISPR to induce SP5G gene mutations that do not produce any anti-chaperonin proteins. Studies have shown that such editors make the common tomato varieties earlier. In addition, manipulating another chlamydia gene will make the tomato grow as dense as the shrubs and show precocity fruiting. By the way, Flarebio offers recombinant proteins of good quality like recombinant Itgb5 at competitive prices.