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From Traditional Breeding to Genome Editing for Boosting Productivity of the Ancient Grain Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter].

ABSTRACT: Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) is a staple food crop for 70% of the Ethiopian population and is currently cultivated in several countries for grain and forage production. It is one of the most nutritious grains, and is also more resilient to marginal soil and climate conditions than major cereals such as maize, wheat and rice. However, tef is an extremely low-yielding crop, mainly due to lodging, which is when stalks fall on the ground irreversibly, and prolonged drought during the growing season. Climate change is triggering several biotic and abiotic stresses which are expected to cause severe food shortages in the foreseeable future. This has necessitated an alternative and robust approach in order to improve resilience to diverse types of stresses and increase crop yields. Traditional breeding has been extensively implemented to develop crop varieties with traits of interest, although the technique has several limitations. Currently, genome editing technologies are receiving increased interest among plant biologists as a means of improving key agronomic traits. In this review, the potential application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) technology in improving stress resilience in tef is discussed. Several putative abiotic stress-resilient genes of the related monocot plant species have been discussed and proposed as target genes for editing in tef through the CRISPR-Cas system. This is expected to improve stress resilience and boost productivity, thereby ensuring food and nutrition security in the region where it is needed the most.

SUBMITTER: Numan M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8066236 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Silicon (Si) is one of the beneficial plant mineral nutrients which is known to improve biotic and abiotic stress resilience and productivity in several crops. However, its beneficial role in underutilized or "orphan" crop such as tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] has never been studied before. In this study, we investigated the effect of Si application on tef plant performance. Plants were grown in soil with or without exogenous application of Na2SiO3 (0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 mM), and biomass and grain yield, mineral content, chlorophyll content, plant height, and expression patterns of putative Si transporter genes were studied. Silicon application significantly increased grain yield (100%) at 3.0 mM Si, and aboveground biomass yield by 45% at 5.0 mM Si, while it had no effect on plant height. The observed increase in grain yield appears to be due to enhanced stress resilience and increased total chlorophyll content. Increasing the level of Si increased shoot Si and Na content while it significantly decreased the content of other minerals including K, Ca, Mg, P, S, Fe, and Mn in the shoot, which is likely due to the use of Na containing Si amendment. A slight decrease in grain Ca, P, S, and Mn was also observed with increasing Si treatment. The increase in Si content with increasing Si levels prompted us to analyze the expression of Si transporter genes. The tef genome contains seven putative Si transporters which showed high homology with influx and efflux Lsi transporters reported in various plant species including rice. The tef Lsi homologs were deferentially expressed between tissues (roots, leaves, nodes, and inflorescences) and in response to Si, suggesting that they may play a role in Si uptake and/or translocation. Taken together, these results show that Si application improves stress resilience and yield and regulates the expression of putative Si transporter genes. However, further study is needed to determine the physiological function of the putative Si transporters, and to study the effect of field application of Si on tef productivity.

Dataset Information

From Traditional Breeding to Genome Editing for Boosting Productivity of the Ancient Grain Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter].

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