BULLETIN 1

IRRI receives Cross of Friendship medal from Lao PDR

 

IRRI News - Feb 07, 2025
LOS BAÑOS, Philippines (6 February 2025) – The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was conferred with the Cross of Friendship medal by the government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) for its “excellent work contributing to research on rice varieties” through the Prime Minister’s Decree Letter dated January 22, 2025.
Dr. Linkham Douangsavanh, Minister of the Lao PDR Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) presented the award to IRRI Director General Dr. Yvonne Pinto during the Lao PDR delegation’s visit to the IRRI headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines on February 6, 2025.
The Cross of Friendship medal is a prestigious honor awarded by the Government of Lao PDR to foreign individuals and organizations in recognition of their outstanding contributions and support to the country.
The citation also highlighted IRRI’s continuing work on testing rice quality and new rice varieties, and implementing various projects in the Lao PDR since 2011, helping foster strong relations and cooperation between the Lao PDR and the Philippines.
See https://www.irri.org/news-and-events/news/irri-receives-cross-friendship-medal-lao-pdr

BULLETIN 2

NARES and IRRI advance market-driven varieties and accelerate adoption of new rice varieties in Africa

 

 

IRRI Feb 06, 2025
The 2024 NARES-IRRI Joint Advancement Meeting in Zanzibar, Tanzania, reaffirmed a shared commitment to tackling food security challenges in East and Southern Africa (ESA). Hosted by the Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the meeting served as a platform to assess progress, exchange insights, and develop actionable strategies to enhance rice breeding lines and seed systems in the region. By aligning research with market demands and local farming conditions, governments, NARES, and IRRI aim to fast-track the adoption of improved rice varieties—ensuring higher yields, superior grain quality, and greater resilience to climate challenges.
In her inaugural address, Honorable Zena Ahmed Said, Chief Secretary of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, emphasized the importance of collaboration among the government, the agricultural community, IRRI, NARES, and their partners. She highlighted how these partnerships have enabled Zanzibar to benefit from high-yielding, climate-resilient rice varieties and advancements in agricultural practices.
“This platform provides us with an excellent opportunity to deepen our collaboration, strengthen our partnerships, and chart a path forward for the future of rice production in East and Southern Africa,” she stated.
She also assured participants of the government’s ongoing commitment to agricultural research, farmer support, and climate-smart practices.
See https://www.irri.org/news-and-events/news/nares-and-irri-advance-market-driven-varieties-and-accelerate-adoption-new-rice

SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Review
Strategies and Protocols for Optimized Genome Editing in Potato
Frida Meijer Carlsen, Ida Westberg, Ida Elisabeth Johansen, Erik Andreasson, Bent Larsen Petersen
CRISPR J.; 2025 Feb; 8(1):37-50. doi: 10.1089/crispr.2024.0068.

  

Abstract
The potato family includes a highly diverse cultivar repertoire and has a high potential for nutritional yield improvement and refinement but must in line with other crops be adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses, for example, accelerated by climate change and environmental demands. The combination of pluripotency, high ploidy, and relative ease of protoplast isolation, transformation, and regeneration together with clonal propagation through tubers makes potato highly suitable for precise genetic engineering. Most potato varieties are tetraploid having a very high prevalence of length polymorphisms and small nucleotide polymorphisms between alleles, often complicating CRISPR-Cas editing designs and strategies. CRISPR-Cas editing in potato can be divided into (i) characterization of target area and in silico-aided editing design, (ii) isolation and editing of protoplast cells, and (iii) the subsequent explant regeneration from single protoplast cells. Implementation of efficient CRISPR-Cas editing relies on efficient editing at the protoplast (cell pool) level and on robust high-throughput editing scoring methods at the cell pool and explant level. Gene and chromatin structure are additional features to optionally consider. Strategies and solutions for addressing key steps in genome editing of potato, including light conditions and schemes for reduced exposure to hormones during explant regeneration, which is often linked to somaclonal variation, are highlighted.
See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39628447/

 

  

FIG. CRISPR-Cas editing and editing scoring. Classical genome editing in plants involves a sgRNA guided Cas dsDNA nuclease with subsequent induction of the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) DNA repair pathway, frequently resulting in loss of function (LOF) mutations. Modulation or gain of function (MOF/GOF) may be obtained through the use of sgRNA guided base editors (BEs), for example, cytidine and adenine BEs, which employ a nickase version of the Cas enzyme (nCas) with subsequent induction of the base excision repair (BER) pathway, or by prime editor RNA (pegRNA) guided prime editors (PEs), with subsequent induction of the NHEJ or the homology directed Repair pathway (HDR), depending on cell type. While BEs have been applied successfully in plants (optimizations devised in study by Westberg et al.21 and precision reviewed in study by Molla et al.22) successful applications of PEs in plants are at present absent or scarce at best. Various mostly PCR-based editing screens exist23 of which the Indel Detection of Amplicon Analysis (IDAA) appear to be robust and very suitable for organisms with high ploidy and complex genomes, such as tetraploid potato.24,25 IDAA PCR involve a three-primer design including a fluorescently labeled, for example, fluorescein amidite (FAM), universal primer or a two-primer design with one of the gene specific forward or reverse primers being fluorescently labeled. ABE, adenine base editor; BE, base editor; CBE, cytidine base editor; IDAA, Indel Detection Amplicon Analysis; dsDNA, double stranded DNA; GOF, gain of function; Indel, Insertion/Deletion; LOF, loss of function; NHEJ, nonhomologous end-joining repair pathway; MOF, modulation of function; nCas, Nickase Cas; pDNA, plasmid DNA; PEG, polyethylene glycol; pegRNA, prime editing guide RNA; RNP, ribonucleoproten; sgRNA, sequence guide RNA; T-DNA, transfer DNA. Image created with Biorender.com.