CRISPR/CAS 9 based Wood Engineering for sustainable future

 

Forests are an integral part of our ecosystem; as they play a key role in purification of environment and at the same time are a source of key products used in everyday life. But often producing these key products is injurious to our eco-system. In order to deal with such challenges research team at the VIB-Plant System Biology institute has started using modern gene editing tool for introducing desired commercial based and eco-friendly modification in to plants.

 

THE ISSUE:

Lignin is an important complex polymer present in plants and supply them with much needed structural strength, it is present in significant quantity in all plants and especially in woody plants where it is present in bark as well as the wood portion of the plant. The very compound which provides support and strength to plant also hinders its efficient processing in to useful products.

 

THE SOLUTION:

Research team at VIB institute performed an experiment few years back where the use of RNAi technology was helpful in reducing the lignin issue and increase processing efficiency in poplar tree but a key issue was negative impact on growth of plants, ultimately making it an unfavorable approach. Recently the advent of CRISPR/CAS 9 technology has changed this scenario researcher were able to introduce targeted genome modification in poplar for lignin reduction. Poplar is a diploid tree possessing two copies for each of gene responsible for a trait, the research team focused on introducing complete deletion in one copy of CCR2 gene, while introducing a mutation in to second copy, thus reducing its overall impact. The corresponding trees which have been engineered showed reduction in lignin component by up to 10% and resulted in an increase in process efficiency by more than 40%. The resulting trees were also able to grow normally indicating that no negative impact on yield has been introduced in response to genome engineering of these plants.

Poplar Wood Logs

FUTURE:

These findings can be of great influence for future research and development as the world tries to shift towards a sustainable future. As, the genetically engineered trees can be used as source of wide range of products from ordinary paper to biofuels and large number of bio-based products helping in achieving mankind’s goal of sustainable future.