Varietal innovation in pea: development of a genome editing method

Legumes play an important role in both human and animal nutrition, serving as an excellent source of plant-based protein. Additionally, their cultivation offers environmental and agronomic benefits. Among legumes, pea is the most widely cultivated in France. However, expanding its cultivation faces several challenges. To address these, INRAE is conducting research and developing tools to better understand the biology of this species and to identify genes of interest. It also aims to accelerate varietal innovation. In particular, genome editing can contribute to these goals by enabling the validation of candidate genes under study. This technique could be a valuable complementary tool for pea improvement, but until now, editing this so-called recalcitrant species has proven difficult. "Strigolactones and Allelochemicals Signaling" SAS team and "DNA Repair and Genome Engineering" DRAGON team have developed an editing protocol that overcomes this major barrier for research and varietal breeding.