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Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed a new way to add large pieces of genetic information to plants, overcoming a challenge that has limited plant biotechnology for decades. The advance could help scientists build more complex traits into plants in the future, supporting research into areas such as crop resilience, sustainable agriculture, biotechnology and the use of plants as scalable platforms for producing therapeutics and biologics.
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Published in Nature Biotechnology, the study introduces a new genome engineering approach that allows scientists to place large genes into specific locations within plant genomes. The approach was successfully demonstrated in both tobacco and rice, opening new possibilities for future research in agricultural biotechnology, synthetic biology and plant-based biomanufacturing.
The bottleneck beyond gene editing
Scientists have become increasingly effective at editing genes using technologies such as CRISPR, a method that allows researchers to make targeted changes to DNA. However, adding entirely new genes remains significantly more difficult, particularly when larger pieces of genetic information need to be inserted accurately.
Many of the traits researchers hope to develop in future crops, including improved resilience to heat, drought and disease, may require the introduction of multiple genes working together. Scientists are also exploring ways to use plants as biological factories capable of producing medicines, vaccines and other valuable compounds. Achieving these goals depends on being able to introduce larger and more complex genetic instructions into plants, something that remains a major technical challenge.
"Future advances in plant biotechnology will depend not only on our ability to edit genes, but also on our ability to add entirely new genetic instructions," said Professor Magdy Mahfouz, professor of bioengineering at KAUST and senior author of the study. "This work addresses one of the biggest technical challenges in the field and provides researchers with a new tool for building more sophisticated biological traits in plants, including traits that could enable plants to serve as scalable production platforms for therapeutics and other high-value biologics."
A more precise insertion method
The team developed a new method for placing large genes into specific locations within plants, giving researchers greater control over how new traits are introduced. Unlike many existing approaches, the method does not rely on creating breaks in the plant's DNA before inserting new genetic material.
The researchers used the new tool to insert full-length genes and other genetic elements into plants, demonstrating that it could reliably place larger pieces of DNA at targeted locations within the genome.
Expanding the plant engineering toolkit
While the work remains at the research stage, the new method could eventually support efforts to develop plants with more complex characteristics, including the ability to carry multiple beneficial traits or perform new biological functions.
The study represents the first demonstration of this approach in plants and expands the range of tools available to scientists working in plant biotechnology and molecular biomanufacturing.
By giving scientists a new way to introduce large genes into plants, the work opens a new avenue for plant biotechnology research and provides an additional tool for tackling some of the field's most complex genetic challenges.
More information: Zahir Ali et al, Efficient site-specific gene addition using R2 retrotransposons in tobacco and rice, Nature Biotechnology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41587-026-03181-6
Provided by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
This story was originally published on Phys.org.
