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Tunable crops are just a spray away

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The genetic control of crop growth and behaviour can be modified through traditional plant breeding or genetic engineering, but is fixed once a variety is sown. New spray-on viral transfection technology can transiently alter gene expression to fine-tune agronomic traits within the season while avoiding modifications to the genome.

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Fig. 1: Transient spray-on viral technology is applied to improve crop performance in response to real-time environmental conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Karen Massel, Ian Godwin & Lee Hickey

Authors
  1. Karen Massel
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  2. Ian Godwin
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  3. Lee Hickey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lee Hickey.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Massel, K., Godwin, I. & Hickey, L. Tunable crops are just a spray away. Nat. Plants 7, 102–103 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00849-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00849-6

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