Gene Editing: A New Approach to Overcome Mycotoxins and Environmental Stress in Arkansas Corn Production, 2020.

Mycotoxins are a consistent challenge for corn producers in Arkansas. Mycotoxin contamination can vary wildly from year to year and location to location, and thus represents an unpredictable risk to corn production. Outbreaks happen periodically in Arkansas and other U.S. states, which reduce producer profits, cause long-term shifts in production away from corn into other crops, and can even drive individual growers bankrupt in a single season. Aflatoxins, one of the most highly regulated classes of mycotoxins in corn, are frequently associated with pre-harvest infections caused by A. flavus. High levels of environmental stress, especially heat and drought, are frequently associated with high levels of aflatoxin accumulation in corn, presumably because of compromised plant health. Environmental stress also reduces yield and predisposes corn to other biotic stresses. Thus, novel tools to increase stress tolerance in corn are needed urgently to protect yields and reduce aflatoxins to manageable levels. Gene editing, a breakthrough technology for non-transgenic manipulation of plant genes, is a powerful tool to increase corn's ability to tolerate environmental stress. The overall goal of this project is to utilize gene editing to improve the resistance of corn to aflatoxin contamination, in part by augmenting resistance to environmental stress. The specific objectives are to 1) use gene editing for non-transgenic, precision manipulation of corn genes involved in resistance (or susceptibility) to aflatoxin and environmental stress, and 2) genetically map genes/pathways in corn underlying resistance and/or susceptibility to aflatoxin and environmental stress. To this end, we recently refined tissue-culture-based approaches for gene editing in corn and utilized new approaches to identify corn genes involved in augmenting stress tolerance. These activities have provided critical tools and information to advance gene editing for aflatoxin control in corn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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