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This work was supported by NSF Award 1701918 to JGM.

Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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The lowest hanging fruit: Beneficial gene knockouts in past, present, and future crop evolution

Publicated to:Current Plant Biology. 24 100185- - 2020-12-01 24(), DOI: 10.1016/j.cpb.2020.100185

Authors: Monroe, J G; Arciniegas, J P; Moreno, J L; Sanchez, F; Sierra, S; Valdes, S; Torkamaneh, D; Chavarriaga, P

Affiliations

Int Ctr Trop Agr, Genet Transformat Platform, Cali, Colombia - Author
Univ Calif Davis, Dept Plant Sci, Davis, CA 95616 USA - Author
Univ Guelph, Dept Plant Agr, Guelph, ON, Canada - Author

Abstract

It is now well-documented that gene knockout (loss-of-function) alleles have played a prominent role in crop evolution during domestication, diversification, and improvement. This includes dramatic examples from the very origins of agriculture to the monumental yield increases of the Green Revolution. Recent advances in the generation of whole genome sequence data and functional investigations into the molecular genetic basis of crop traits continue to reveal the existence of considerable beneficial loss of function in crop species. These discoveries now inspire contemporary efforts to use targeted gene knockouts powered by modern gene editing tools to accelerate crop breeding. Here we trace the history and future of loss of function as a powerful mechanism of crop evolution and review the reasons gene knockouts might have been particularly important in past crop evolution and why they continue to be a "lowest hanging fruit" for directing crop evolution through molecular breeding in pursuit of more productive, resilient, and nutritious crops.

Keywords
AdaptationAgricultureCassava mosaic diseaseDomesticatioFunctional geneticsGenome evolutionGrain-sizeGreen-revolutionLoss-of-functionMaize domesticationMarker-assisted introgressionMolecular-basisNatural variationPowdery mildew resistanceRicSingle-nucleotide polymorphismsZero hunger

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Current Plant Biology due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Plant Science.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 3.01, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-09, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 10
  • Scopus: 15
  • Open Alex: 14
  • OpenCitations: 14
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-09:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 34.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 34 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 17.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 9 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, with a probability of 71% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Canada; Colombia; United States of America.