A CAFNR plant scientist’s research could reimagine possibilities for genome editing in plants — especially for many high-economic-impact plants in Missouri like soybeans and maize. Soyon Park, assistant professor of plant science and technology, is attempting to develop a protocol that would allow scientists to edit plant genomes through parasitic plants.

“We want to deliver genes from parasitic plants to host plants,” Park said. “We first want to see if this method is working because no one has ever tried this method before.”

The project received $1 million  from the National Science Foundation, and Park is the project director with co-PIs at Virginia Tech and Penn State University.

Park explained that parasitic plants can and do transmit molecules to host plants that then affect host’s growth after making physical connections, and her team is looking to harness the mobile molecules and use it intentionally to manipulate the host genome. These targeted genes from the genome editing process could potentially affect a host plant’s flowering, pathogen resistance or stress resistance.

One potential benefit of this method of transforming a plant’s genome is speed.

“Crops like soybeans or maize have low transformation efficiency,” Park said. “Also, it takes a very long time to get a stably transformed transgenic event. However, if we can utilize transgenic parasitic plants, we may be able to skip the lengthy steps. This could provide a significant time-saving advantage for these very economically important plants.”

Park’s research team produced a manuscript that has been accepted for publication in the journal New Phytologist. The journal has an impressive impact factor of 9.4. This article discusses Park’s work on parasitic plant transformation, and will be available online later this fall.

“Parasitic plants are dangerous weeds,” Park explained. “Last year, my lab received around $750,000 in funding from the National Institute of Foundational Agricultural. The goal for this research is to understand the interactions between crops and parasitic plants, in order to develop a strategy to control these problematic weeds. With this new NSF fund, my lab is focusing on both ways to mitigate the negative impact of parasitic plants as well as explore potential uses for them.”

Park’s team consists of herself, graduate student Supral Adhikari, who is in his first year of his Ph.D. in plant, insect and microbial sciences after being a visiting scholar in Park’s lab for the previous year, and her co-PI in the MU College of Education, Yeji Kim, assistant professor of learning, teaching and curriculum.

Kim is focusing on a broader impact outreach portion of the project, which will work with refugee students at local high schools. These students will be invited to campus to work alongside Park and the team in greenhouses and the lab.

“We will explore the program together,” Park said. “In these student’s home countries, such as Africa, parasitic plants pose much bigger problems because there are no selective chemical controls that only target the parasitic plants, without also impacting the crops. These students have seen these parasitic plants in their home countries, so they can share their insights and experiences with us through this outreach program.”

As the students lend their knowledge about the parasitic plants, Park explained that the interactions between them and her team will also offer opportunities to learn English and plant science.

Together, Park is optimistic that the team will establish an effective protocol for transforming plant genomes in this way, and she hopes to pursue future projects that would target specific genetic traits for plants like soybean and maize.