Creation of virus-resistant plants with artificial DNA-binding proteins
In order to resolve global food crisis, it is important to prevent plant viruses from spreading infections as they infect a wide variety of agricultural crops and significantly reduce yields. For example, gemini-virus, which forms a large family in a DNA virus, has caused over 200 billion yen worth of damage to cassava, which is a major staple food in Africa. So there is demand for effective methods to prevent such damage. A possible solution to this problem is the use of commercially available virus-resistant agricultural crops created by breeding that have some degree of resistance to viral infections. However, such crops become a new source of infection, as it is not possible to eliminate the infected virus from them. Therefore, scientists are still searching for long term solutions.