Various plants with WOX9 edited (IMAGE)

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Various plants with WOX9 edited

Caption

The WOX9 'master regulator' gene and its protein product can do different things related to growth and development in different plants. Researchers revealed conserved common roles for the gene by changing the regulatory DNA controlling WOX9. They used the genome-editing tool CRISPR. In tomatoes (left), changing the gene's regulation changed seed viability and could increase the number of branches that make flowers. The same edits in groundcherries, a relative of tomato (middle), also increased the number of branches and flowers made. In arabidopsis, a relative of broccoli (right), the increased flowering and branching were so exuberant that flowers branched out of the insides of other flowers.

Credit

Hendelman/Lippman lab/CSHL, 2021

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