This technology enhances both drought and salt stress resistance in plants by inhibiting the expression or activity of CaFIRF1 (a RING finger protein that interacts with FAF1), identified in chili peppers. Since CaFIRF1 acts as a negative regulator that reduces plant tolerance under drought and high-salinity conditions, silencing it strengthens resistance to both abiotic stresses.
Global warming and desertification have increased drought and soil salinity, severely threatening crop productivity, yet the signaling pathway of ABA, a key plant defense hormone, remains incompletely understood. While it was known that E3 ligases responsible for ubiquitination regulate stress responses, there has been a lack of RING finger genes in chili peppers that simultaneously regulate drought and salt stress, as well as practical means to target them for improvement.
This technology involves using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to inhibit the expression of the CaFIRF1 protein (SEQ ID NO: 1). The resulting transgenic chili pepper plants exhibit improved tolerance to both water scarcity and saline environments. Applicable to developing chili varieties for reclaimed or coastal saline soils, open-field cultivation in drought-prone areas, and gene-editing-based breeding of stress-tolerant vegetables, this method overcomes two major cultivation limitations simultaneously by editing a single endogenous gene without introducing foreign DNA.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research on drought and salt tolerance signaling through protein stabilization regulation in chili peppers.
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