With the global population having reached 8 billion on November 15th, 2022, agriculture plays a crucial role in ensuring that the food and resource demands of this population are met. However, the use of intensive farming practices has led to an uncontrolled spread of plant diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding plant immunity. Indeed, plant immunity has become a key area of research as it holds the potential to mitigate the impact of diseases on crops, leading to greater sustainability and resiliency in agricultural practices.
Furthermore, the ability to modify the genetic code of plants through borderless genome editing tools, such as the Cas9 system, has opened up new opportunities for plant immunity research. At the CGE, we precisely target and modify specific genes responsible for disease resistance, making plants less vulnerable to diseases. This targeted approach holds enormous promise not only for the future of agriculture, but also for the production of medicinal herbs, which are highly sought-after as more people look for natural solutions for their health and wellness needs.
The importance of plant immunity research cannot be overstated. With the help of new, enhanced types of the Cas9 system, our ultimate goal at the CGE is to contribute to a more sustainable and resilient agriculture as well as to improve the supply of medicinal herbs to meet growing demands.
The study of negative regulators of the immune response has revealed several candidate genes for genome editing to improve plant traits. Our strategy at CGE’s Plant Facility consists of the following:
- 1. Design gene editing methods
- a. Delete the repressor domain in transcriptional repressor genes
- b. Substitute amino acids to reduce the affinity between positive effectors and negative regulators
- 2. Use micro-tom and lettuce to evaluate disease resistance
- 3. Edit the desired genes in major crops and medicinal herbs
Contact : Su-Ji Bae (sjbae@ibs.re.kr)
