Discovery offers patentable tools to improve the efficiency of food production Scientists are expanding genome editing and engineering in plants April 8, 2021 The research of plant scientist Yiping Qi at the University of Maryland focuses on innovative genome editing and engineering techniques in plants, with the goal of improving the efficiency of food production. Nature Communications by Qi and colleagues, contribute six novel variants of CRISPR-Cas12a that have never before been proven in plants, testing them first in rice, a major global crop. In addition to allowing for a much broader scope of possible gene editing targets, these new tools can edit many different sites in the genome at once, or repress gene expression to tone down undesirable traits. These patent-pending tools greatly expand the scope of what CRISPR-Cas12a can do in plants, which can help produce food more effectively to feed a growing global population.