Generating zebra chip-resistant tomatoes and potatoes using CRISPR/Cas9

Soilcea in conjunction with Texas A&M aims to improve potatoes tomatoes and other plants bycreating varieties resistant to zebra chip disease caused by Candidatus Liberibacter solanacerum.Zebra chip disease is an economically harmful crop that causes production declines and zebra-likestripes when potatoes are fried for chips.In this USDA NIFA SBIR Phase I proposal Soilcea will use CRISPR/Cas9 precision breedingtechnology to delete zebra chip-susceptibility target genes to turn off the plant-pathogen interaction.Texas A&M will then test the new CRISPR-edited tomato varieties to determine whether thosevarieties are resistant or tolerant to zebra chip disease. At the end of Phase I we expect to havedeveloped zebra chip-resistant tomato varieties and will then extend that knowledge in Phase II todevelop zebra chip-resistant potato varieties for farmers in the US and around the world.The USDA recently issued guidance that it will not regulate CRISPR precision breeding that couldoccur naturally. Unlike traditional GMOs that involve inserting a foreign gene (like a bacterialgene) into a plant Soilcea is using CRISPR breeding to make small deletions in genes that make aplant susceptible to zebra chip disease. Nature also deletes DNA susceptible to diseases and slowlyadopts the beneficial change through natural selection. At Soilcea we are simply advancing anatural process to help the potato industry.