Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6451491 | Current Opinion in Biotechnology | 2018 | 7 Pages |
â¢Genetic circuits have the potential to accelerate crop improvement.â¢Successful genetic circuits are currently made from heterologous, composable parts.â¢Higher throughput methods for gene delivery into crop plants are needed.â¢Gene stacking technologies will be essential.â¢Consumers and regulators need to be engaged, and concerns adequately addressed.
The love affair between crop breeding and genetics began over a century ago and has continued unabated, from mass selection programs to targeted genome modifications. Synthetic genetic circuits, a recent development, are combinations of regulatory and coding DNA introduced into a crop plant to achieve a desired function. Genetic circuits could accelerate crop improvement, allowing complex traits to be rationally designed and requisite DNA parts delivered directly into a genome of interest. However, there is not yet a standardized pipeline from exploratory laboratory testing to crop trials, and bringing transgenic products to market remains a considerable barrier. We highlight successes so far and future developments necessary to make genetic circuits a viable crop improvement technology over this century.
Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (72KB)Download full-size image