Scientists have published research suggesting genetic engineering could be used to increase disease resistance in cacao trees. Globally, around 27 percent of cocoa pods are lost to disease more than 30 years . CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Testing on detached leaves, the team at CRISPR , led by Guiltinan , used the Penn State University -Cas9 gene editing tool to knock out a small number of copies of a gene that suppresses the plant's disease response. They found the modified cacao leaves were more resistant. Gene-edited cacao embryos were also created and will be grown to test whether the approach could have the same effect on a whole plant.
Scientists have published research suggesting genetic engineering could be used to increase disease resistance in cacao trees. Globally, around 27 percent of cocoa pods are lost to disease more than 30 years . Testing on detached leaves, the team at CRISPR , led by Guiltinan , used the Penn State University -Cas9 gene editing tool to knock out a small number of copies of a gene that suppresses the plant's disease response. They found the modified cacao leaves were more resistant. Gene-edited cacao embryos were also created and will be grown to test whether the approach could have the same effect on a whole plant.