This document discusses why studying plants is important to overcome food problems. It outlines three main global food problems: population growth, climate change, and new diseases. It then discusses how understanding plant immune systems and using gene editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9 can help address these problems. CRISPR has been used to develop disease-resistant crops, improve stress tolerance, and modify starch content. A better understanding of plant immune systems involving PRRs, effectors, and NLR receptors could also lead to more robust plant defenses against pathogens.

1. Why study plants?
Jieun Jang
Sukyoung Jung
Mesele Tilahun Belete
KRIBB,UST, Korea

2. Major Food in the World
The overwhelming majority of global staple foods are grains.
Everything we eat comes directly or indirectly from plants.
Rank Staple food
Share of global
caloric intake
from all sources
1 Maize Corn 19.5%
2 Rice 16.5%
3 Wheat 15.0%
4 Cassava 2.6%
5 Soybeans 2.1%
6 Potatoes 1.7%
7 Sorghum 1.2%
8 Sweet Potato 0.6%
9 Yams 0.4%
10 Plantain 0.3%

3. World Food Problems
Population growth
New disease
Climate change

4.  Global Land Limitations
World Food Problems
1. Population growth
The UN Population Division expects world population, currently
(2020) at 7.8 billion, to level out at or soon after the end of the
21st Century at 10.9 billion.
• Hunger and famine
: 10% of the world is covered by
glaciers, and a further 19% is
barren. This leaves what we call
‘habitable land’. Half of all
habitable land is used for
agriculture.
: Hunger has been on the rise over
the past three years, returning to
levels from a decade ago.
Worldwide, about 795 million
people suffer from chronic
undernourishment.
• Malnutrition
: Malnutrition-Fault nutrition- caused by
a diet that does not supply a persons
with enough vitamins, minerals and
other nutrition. Nearly 800 million
people are undernourished, 2 billion are
considered micronutrient-deficient.

5. World Food Problems
2. Climate change
Between 12 and 39 percent of the world’s land surface will
develop novel climates by 2100 as a result of climate change.
Climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity are
linked in a complex feedback loop—a vicious cycle.
• Decline in the crop yield
: The period 2030–2049 showing yield losses of more than
25%, compared to the late 20th century. After 2050, the risk of
more severe impacts increases.

6. • Decline in the crop yield
World Food Problems
2. Climate change
Between 12 and 39 percent of the world’s land surface will
develop novel climates by 2100 as a result of climate change.
Climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity are
linked in a complex feedback loop—a vicious cycle.
• Drought / Flood
: Droughts and other climate-related extreme events are
becoming more frequent because of the impacts of climate
change. Drought stress reduces the plant growth by
influencing various physiological as well as biochemical
functions.
: The period 2030–2049 showing yield losses of more than
25%, compared to the late 20th century. After 2050, the risk of
more severe impacts increases.

7. World Food Problems
Crop pathogens and pests reduce the yield and quality
of agricultural production. They cause substantial
economic losses and reduce food security at
household, national and global levels.
In the case of cultivated plants, the plant pest
and pathogens (P&Ps) coevolution process is
first driven by the fact that cultivated crop
stands most generally consist in cohorts of plant
individuals that are at the same physiological
and phenological stage, where adapted P&P
genotypes may rapidly reproduce.
Furthermore, large-scale, genetically uniform,
intensive monoculture production has been
considered as a disruption of co-evolutionary
processes, which favours strong, large-scale
outbreaks and epidemics in agroecosystems
that have been rendered more vulnerable to
P&Ps.
3. New disease

8. How to overcome
Food problems?
- CRISPR/Cas9

9. How to overcome Food problem
CRISPR/Cas9
CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)
: A family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such
as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments
of bacteriophages that had previously infected the prokaryote.
Cas9 (or "CRISPR-associated protein 9")
: An enzyme that uses CRISPR sequences as a guide to recognize and cleave specific strands of
DNA that are complementary to the CRISPR sequence.
The CRISPR-Cas system is a prokaryotic immune system that confers resistance to foreign
genetic elements such as those present within plasmids and phages that provides a form
of acquired immunity.

10. How to overcome Food problem
The use of Crisper's principles

11. How to overcome Food problem

12. How to overcome Food problem
CRISPR/Cas9‐based genome editing has been lately established for banana, paving the way for
functional genomics allowing identification of genes associated with stress‐tolerant traits,
which could be used for the improvement of banana for adaptation to a changing climate. This
article presents an overview of recent advancements and prospective on the application of
genetic modification and genome editing for developing climate‐smart banana.

13. How to overcome Food problem
Scientists Develop Modified CRISPR-Cas9
System for Tetraploid Potato
dMac3 is a 161-bp region of
the OsMac3 mRNA, which promotes
efficiency of translation in the nearby
gene. By engineering it to a developed
Cas9 system, the researchers find
increased efficiency of targeted
mutagenesis in the potato
gene GBSSI. GBSSI mutants show low
amylose starch content in the tubers, a
favorable trait in potato.

14. How to overcome Food problem
CRISPR Helps Determine Sorghum's
Ability to Hide from Plant Pest
Scientists initially wanted to know how
plants can adapt to biological stress
factors such as parasites, such as how
they can adapt to non-biological factors
such as droughts and salts. LGS1 stands
for hypogenous stimulant 1, a gene that,
if mutated, affects the hormones of the
crops and prevents parasites from living
in the soil. Researchers used CRISPR-
Cas9 gene editing techniques to clone
LGS1 mutations

15. How to overcome Food problem
Researchers Use CRISPR/Cas9 for Precise
Excision of Transgenes from Rice Genome
Researchers at the University of Arkansas,
led by Vibha Srivastava, developed marker-
free metastasis using the CRISPR/Cas9
system to excrete marker genes from the
plant genome. The transgender rice line
expressing the β-glucuronidase gene (GUS)
gene was modified by agrobacterium or
fgfgfg
gene gun with a structure expressing Cas9 and two guide RNAs targeting both ends of the
GUS gene. Marker removal technology aims to precisely excrete certain DNA pieces without
introducing mutations, and the Cas9 : gRNA system can be an effective tool for producing
marker-free plants.

16. How to overcome Food problem
Cassava Plants Gene Edited Using CRISPR to
Produce Waxy Starch
Casabas rarely bloom in the greenhouse and seed yields are small compared to other
important crops. Cassettes containing the genes of the baby pole that make cassava bloom in
the greenhouse were designed using CRISPR technology. The necessary genetic editing
enabled the production of cassava, brought about improved properties, and there was no
transgenic.

17. How to overcome Food problem
Precise Base Editing of Acetolactate Synthase
Genes Confers Herbicide Resistance in Maize
CRISPR-Cas9 Nickase-cytidine desaminase combined with Uracil DNA glycosylase inhibitor
converts (TT) to non-allelic acid synthase genes (ZMALS1 and ZMALS2) to produce
sulfonylurea resistant mutagen. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
reported precise editing of the maize gene using CRISPR-Cas9, saying that the resistance of
the sulfonylurea herbicide has been developed.

18. How to overcome Food problem
Boosting corn yields with CRISPR-
carrying pollen
Scientists have developed a single-stage
gene editing process that can increase
corn yields. The new technology uses
pollen to transfer the ingredients of
CRISPR-Cas9 to other plants to produce
genetically modified corn, a process
previously hampered by thick cell walls
of many plants such as corn and wheat. The effect can be even more reinforced by the
use of pollen to transport CRISPR toolkit from one genetically modified plant to another
plant's cells.

19. How to overcome Food problem
CRISPR/Cas9 Current and Prospective Application
Gene Therapy and Other Therapeutic
Gene Function Study
Disease Vector
Control
Organ Transplantation
Animal Disease Model
Enhancement
Gene Edition
Biofuel Industry
Agriculture
GMO food

20. How to overcome
Food problems?
- CRISPR/Cas9
- Understanding the plants
immune system

21. How to overcome Food problem
Understanding the plants immune
system
• Disease detection
: Monitoring of health and detection of diseases in plants and trees is critical for
sustainable agriculture.
• Prevention of Plant Diseases
: Prevention is the best remedy when it comes to dealing with most plant diseases.
: Diverse and rapidly evolving pathogens cause plant
diseases and epidemics that threaten crop yield and
food security around the world. Research over the
last 25 years has led to an increasingly clear
conceptual understanding of the molecular
components of the plant immune system.

22. How to overcome Food problem
Plant disease detection
After the onset of plant disease symptoms, the presence
of disease in plants is verified using disease detection
techniques. Presently, the plant disease detection
techniques available are ELISA, based on proteins
produced by the pathogen, and PCR, based on specific
DNA sequences of the pathogen
 There is a demand for a fast, sensitive, and selective method for the rapid
detection of plant diseases.
Enzyme-Linked
Immunosorbent Assay
(ELISA)
Immunoflourescence
(IF)
Fluorescence in situ
hybridization (FISH)
Polymerase chain
reaction (PCR)

23. How to overcome Food problem
• ImmunoStrip
1. Extract sample 2. Perform Test 3. Get Results
Control line
Test line
As the sample flows up the strip it will react with a special reagent called colloidal gold.
The colloidal gold particles are labeled to analyte specific antibodies.
These antibody-gold complexes react with analyte if present and then attach to
immobilized antigen specific antibodies on th membrane.
Analyte specific gold complexes will bind to the test line if the sample is positive. If the
sample is negative, the gold particles will flow past the test line, producing no line. The
control line should always be present. If not, the test is invalid.

24. How to overcome Food problem
1. PTI (PRR-mediated immunity)
Pathogens of all lifestyle classes
express PAMPs and MAMPs as
they colonize plants. Plants
perceive these via extracellular
PRRs and initiate PRR-mediated
immunity (PTI).

25. How to overcome Food problem
1. PTI (PRR-mediated immunity)
Pathogens of all lifestyle classes
express PAMPs and MAMPs as
they colonize plants. Plants
perceive these via extracellular
PRRs and initiate PRR-mediated
immunity (PTI).
Pathogens deliver virulence
effectors to both the plant cell
apoplast to block PAMP/MAMP
perception and to the plant cell
interior.

26. How to overcome Food problem
2. ETI (effector-triggered immunity)
Intracellular NLR receptors can sense
effectors in three principal ways.

27. How to overcome Food problem
Pathogens Avr gene
Plant system R-gene R-proteins
R-Avr protein
interaction
HR
Disease
resistance
Avr-proteins

28. How to overcome Food problem

29. How to overcome Food problem
Scientists Use CRISPR to Develop
Apples Resistant to Fire Blight
Erwinia amylovora causes the fire blight
disease in apple, triggers its infection
through the effector which interacts with
the apple susceptibility protein MdDIPM4.
Researchers used the CRISPR-Cas9 system
to produce defective MdDIPM4 which
were delivered to susceptible apples
using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. These
lines were exposed to fire blight and
results showed a highly significant
reduction of susceptibility.

30. How to overcome Food problem
Engineering Broad-Spectrum Bacterial
Blight Resistance in Rice Using CRISPR-Cas9
To develop broad-spectrum bacterial blight resistance, scientists used CRISPR-Cas9 to
break the TALE-binding elements of the susceptibility genes, OsSWEET11 and OSSWEET14
in rice. The resulting rice line MS14K showed broad-spectrum resistance to most Xoo
strains, which may imply that the compatible strains may have new TALEs.
Bacterial blight is caused by
Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo),
which recruits transcription activator-
like effectors (TALEs) to promote the
expression of OsSWEET genes which
are vital in sugar transport and disease
susceptibility.

31. How to overcome Food problem
Development of broad virus resistance in non‐transgenic cucumber using
CRISPR/Cas9 technology
Scientists demonstrate the development of virus resistance in cucumber (Cucumis
sativus L.) using Cas9/subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) technology to disrupt the function
of the recessive eIF4E (eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E) gene.

32. How to overcome Food problem
Genome editing of the disease susceptibility gene CsLOB1 in citrus confers
resistance to citrus canker
Citrus production faces many biotic challenges, including bacterial canker and
Huanglongbing (HLB). We used CRISPR/Cas9/sgRNA technology to modify the canker
susceptibility gene CsLOB1 in Duncan grapefruit. No canker symptoms were observed on
DLOB9, DLOB10, DLOB11 and DLOB12 at 4 days postinoculation (DPI) with Xanthomonas
citri subsp. citri (Xcc).

33. How to overcome Food problem

34. How to overcome Food problem
RNAi-Mediated Resistance to Bean golden mosaic virus in Genetically
Engineered Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
Bean golden mosaic virus (BGMV) is transmitted by the
whitefly Bemisia tabaci in a persistent, circulative manner, causing
the golden mosaic of common bean. Scientists explored the
concept of using an RNA interference construct to silence the
sequence region of the AC1 viral gene and generate highly
resistant transgenic common bean plants. One line (named 5.1)
presented high resistance (approximately 93% of the plants were
free of symptoms) upon inoculation at high pressure and at a very
early stage of plant development.

35. Why study Plants?
Overcome Food Problems
Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Plant