CRISPR Gene Editing Teach-Out

Food security is a global issue, and CRISPR technology may have major implications for improved agriculture and food supplies and access. It can do so through many mechanisms, including improvements to disease and drought resistance, food safety, plant yields, quality, and product shelf life. It can work against antibiotic resistance, which is an increasing danger to food production. Here are a few key examples of how CRISPR could resolve issues of food security:

Nutrient densification has the potential to make crops more nutritious. Vitamin D insufficiency is a growing issue linked to higher health risks, including dementia, cancer, and severity of infection of COVID-19. Vitamin D is created in our bodies after the skin’s exposure to UVB light, but the major source is food. CRISPR researchers can make revisions to the genetic code of tomato plants to make it a valuable source of vitamin D, which tomato fruits do not normally contain.

Climate proofing makes plants and animals less susceptible to issues such as irregular weather patterns and rising temperatures. Extreme heat can be dangerous for cattle, and some have adapted by evolving a gene that gives them shorter hair. This trait can be introduced to other types of cattle using CRISPR, making them more heat tolerant as global temperatures climb due to climate change.

Domestication of plants results in food and materials that is high-quality, reliable, and optimal for human use. Plant domestication can take hundreds of years. Researchers have identified some of the most important traits for domesticated rice (such as grain yield and quality), and then used CRISPR to improve these genes in wild rice, to make it more suitable for food production.

Optional: Listen to this 12:26 minute TEDTalk with Sanushka Naidoo, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Pretoria, on how genetics is shaping agriculture and food.