In Russia, with the help of genome editing, new forms of potatoes without flowers and resistant to diseases have been created. This was reported at the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology.

“We use potato genome editing technology and are currently working with two target genes. First of all, this is the LFY gene, a transcription factor that controls the transition of plants to flowering,” said Vasily Taranov, Candidate of Biological Sciences, head of the laboratory at VNIISB.

If you block the flowering of potatoes, then the energy resources of the plant, which were previously used for this, can go to the formation of tubers, and, perhaps, due to this, it will be possible to achieve an increase in yield.

“The second gene we are working with is the so-called negative regulator of resistance. There are genes in plants, the inactivation of which leads to an increase in their resistance to various kinds of diseases, and one of such promising genes is EDR1. We are editing it, and now it is all at the stage of analyzing the results, ”explained Taranov.

First of all, scientists are trying to achieve potato resistance to fungal diseases, in particular late blight.

“Full-fledged varieties of potatoes have not yet been created, the technology is young, and accordingly, things have not yet reached the varieties. In addition, there is a debatable issue in the legislation: whether to equate genetically edited plants with genetically modified organisms. GMOs are not grown in our country, there is a moratorium on this. Genetically edited, most likely, will still be allowed. The essence of this new technology is that nothing extraneous is introduced there, just mutations are introduced into certain genes by genetic engineering,” explained Academician Gennady Karlov, director of VNIISB.

If the legislation changes and genetically edited plants are still allowed to be grown, then it will be vital to have full-cycle technologies for basic crops in the country, scientists are sure.

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