BOGOR AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 to develop semi-dwarf rice plants. Plant height posture is an important factor in rice production. When the rice plant has elevated height, it is prone to lodging, which can affect yield. The researchers targeted editing the GA20Ox2 gene by introducing CRISPR-Cas9 GA20Ox2 construct into Indonesian rice cultivar IPB3S to develop the semi-dwarf rice mutants.
The immature embryos of IPB3S rice were transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and regenerated in varied special media. The analysis confirmed the transformation as indicated by the presence of the hpt gene. The highest regeneration was observed in A medium, while the shortest plant height was achieved in IPB 8-3 mutant.
