Study decodes the complex autotetraploid cultivated alfalfa genome

Improvement of cultivated alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a perennial herbaceous legume and one of the most important forage crops, might be accelerated if agronomically beneficial mutations could be easily incorporated into modern varieties. However, obtaining mutants of the autotetraploid and self-incompatible cultivated alfalfa through traditional phenotypic selection is challenging. No mutant of the species has been previously reported using either CRISPR/Cas9 or other site-specific nucleases.

from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2zsBByU