Disease-resistant gene-edited rice offers hope for small-scale farmers in Africa

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small-scale farmers in Africa
small-scale farmers in Africa

RICE YELLOW MOTTLE VIRUS (RYMV) is responsible for high crop losses in Africa, particularly among small-scale farmers. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) has now developed rice lines that are resistant to the disease using genome editing.

RYMV is an RNA virus spread by beetles and direct leaf-to-leaf contact. There is no known effective protection against the virus and the only real protection is to develop rice varieties that possess a resistance gene against RYMV.

Three resistance genes are currently known, and mutations in just one of the genes, called RYMV12, and 3, are sufficient to achieve resistance. The resistant form rymv2 occurs in poor-yielding African rice (Oryza glaberrima) varieties.