Gene editing leads to faster production of food-friendly cassava

Zurich researchers have used gene-editing technology to develop a variant of the starchy tuber cassava that is much easier to process for the food and paper industries. Until now, complex and energy-intensive industrial processes have been required to turn the starchy root vegetable cassava, also known as manioc, into food and paper products. Cassava is very hardy and tolerates drought better than other starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes, making it a staple food source in many tropical and sub-tropical countries. It is one of the top five most important sources of carbohydrate globally. Now, an international team of researchers led by the lab of Simon Bull at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) has found a way to produce a variant of the cassava plant that lacks the molecule amylose, which is found in the root starch and makes processing the plant for food very difficult. Using the gene-editing technology Crispr/Cas9, the researchers removed two genes ...