Building on 50 Years
of Breeding Innovations
Genome Editing: A Disruptive Technology for
Accelerating Breeding
CIAT 50 Celebrations
8-9 November 2017

The Rice Green Revolution
A new plant architecture for higher yield
TraditionalSemi - dwarf Peter Jennings developed IR8 at IRRI
and brought it to Latin America…
revolutionized rice production

CIAT plant breeders objectives
• Beat pest and diseases
• Increase yields despite environmental
stress and climate change
• Create new end products – Waxy cassava
• Meet consumers’ expectations
• Develop more nutritious crops

Some Breeding Milestones at CIAT
Tapping
into
cultivated
and wild
genetic
diversity of
bean, rice
and
cassava
Doubled
Haploid
in rice
Recurrent
Selection
for sexual
and
apomicitic
Brachiaria
Molecular
Markers &
Genome
Sequencing
rice, beans,
cassava and
Brachiaria
Use of
Phaseolus
species for
complex
traits: acid
soils, heat
Rice
Hybrid
Genomic
Selection in
rice
Use of
structured
populations
MAGIC,
NAM

Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) PLoS ONE 8(6): e66428
Global Corp Production Needs to Double by 2050

Where yield increase will come from?
CIAT strategies
Closing yield gap via:
• Agronomic revolution
• Reducing post harvest losses
• Protecting yield gain
• Precision phenotyping (WUE, NUE, Root architecture)
Breeding – Accelerating Genetic Gain
• Novel breeding strategies (Genomic Selection)
• Integrating Genome Sequencing with breeding
• Use of Wild species
• Rice Hybrids
• Genome Editing

Genome Editing CRISPR – CAS 9
A revolutionary genome
editing tool with the
capability of modifying
genome regions with
targeted high precision

Impressive Publications Since 2014
From Technical to General Media

Accelerating Breeding using Genome Editing
CIAT current work on Rice, Cassava and Beans
• Nutritional Quality
• Digestibility
• Validate a candidate gene for resistance to Rice Hoja Blanca
virus identified through fine genetic mapping
• Disease resistance genes, plant height, amylose & seed size
• Waxy cassava
• Diseases resistance genes

IR-64 single-copy
transgenic plant to
knock out four genes
Accelerating Breeding Using Genome Editing
Targeting multiple genes for disease resistance

Accelerating Breeding Using Genome Editing
Bean Nutritional Quality Improvement
Edition of antinutritive compounds
Targets: Stachyose Synthase (STS) and Raffinose Synthase (RS2)
Breakthrough in 2017:
Transgenic plants of common
bean were obtained by
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
mediated gene transfer
Next Step: Obtain full edited,
non-GMO plants
J. Moreno, J. Barrera, S. Valdés, M. Prías. CIAT 2017

Accelerating Breeding Using Genome Editing
Waxy Cassava
CRISPR Design
Production of Friable
embryogenic callus (FEC)
Agrobacterium transformation
Current Status
Amylose Content
wt waxy
Waxy Cassava is important for the
natural starch sector (non-chemically
modified starches) and for products
requiring gels with higher viscosity and
clarity and for frozen or refrigerated
food products
Develop cassava with root amylose-
free (waxy) starch in multiple highly
adapted genotypes based on a natural
mutation identified by CIAT

Accelerating Diagnostics Using Genome Editing
CIAT plans for diagnostics of Rice, Cassava and Beans diseases
Reprogramming CRISPRs for disease diagnostics –
Specific High Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter Un LOCKing (SHERLOCK)
Science, April 2017
Collaboration CIAT- Broad Institute established

Engaging the Research Community
First training course in Colombia on
genome editing. Dec 13-16, 2016
Webinar by CIAT staff on Genome
Editing. October 2017
Symposium on Genome Editing with
presenters from Pioneer, Naro-Japan,
Cornell, Benson-Hill, Merck and CIAT.
October 17-18, 2017

CIAT Genome Editing Platform
An Opportunity for Partnership and Collaboration
• Expertise in tissue culture, genetic, molecular
biology, bioinformatics, genetic transformation
and breeding
• Lab, greenhouses and fields to conduct
confined biosafety field trials
• Strong stewardship

Genome Editing
An Additional Tool for
Breeding Innovations

CIAT Breeders-Geneticists
RICE: Peter Jennings • Cesar Martínez • Elcio Guimaraes • James Gibbons • Surapon Sarkarung • Marc Chatel •
Edgar Torres • Cécile Grenier • Eduardo Graterol • Yolima Ospina • Hector Weeraratne • Carlos Brussone •
Manuel Rosero • Luis Eduardo Berrio • Yamid Sanabria • Federico Cuevas • Jaime Borrero • Edgar Corredor •
Gonzalo Zorrilla • Joe Tohme • Maria Fernanda Alvarez • Mathias Lorieux
BEAN: Silvio Hugo Orosco • Steve Beebe • Steve Temple • Shree Singh • Julia Kornegay • Jeremy Davis •
Peter Hanson • Guillermo Hernandez Bravo • Rogelio Lepiz • Oswaldo Voysest • Mike Dessert • Howard Gridley •
Barry Smithson • Jim Nienhuis • Cesar Cajiao • Daniel Debouck • Matt Blair • Clare Mukankusi • Rowland Chirwa •
Bodo Ratz
CASSAVA: Kazuo Kawano • Clair Hershey • Carlos Iglesias • Hernan Ceballos • Luis A. Beccerra • Martin
Fregene • Meredith Bonierbale • Stef DeHan
BRACHIARIA: Rainer Schultze Kraft • John Miles • Margaret Worthington • Valheria Castiblanco
Forever Pioneers
50 years of CIAT breeding innovations for Rice, Beans, Cassava and Brachiaria