Indian gene editing technology to aid cheaper, commercial GE crop breeding

In a boost to indigenous efforts at genome-edited (GE) crop breeding, Indian scientists have developed what is claimed to be a "miniature alternative" to the proprietary CRISPR-Cas proteins-based technology to precisely cut and tweak the DNA of plants.

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

The new GE technology — for which the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has recently been granted a patent — deploys the so-called TnpB or Transposon-associated proteins. These, just like the most widely used CRISPR-associated Cas9 and Cas12a proteins, act as “molecular scissors” to cleave the DNA of a gene at a predetermined target site and change its sequence. Such editing is aimed at bringing forth desirable alterations in that gene's expression and function.

“What we have developed is a new GE system based on TnpB, instead of Cas proteins.