Making plants blue through gene editing could simplify weed removal by robots

Common crops such as wheat and corn could be genetically modified to be brightly colored to make them easier for weeding robots to work with, researchers have suggested.

Weeding reduces the need for herbicides, but the artificial intelligence models that power weeding robots can have trouble distinguishing weeds from crops that are similar in shape and color.

To avoid this problem, Pedro Correia Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and their colleagues have suggested that crop genomes could be adapted to express pigments such as anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, and carotenoids, which make carrots orange.

It is also possible to grow crops with unusually shaped leaves or other traits that are invisible to the naked eye but can be detected by sensors such as those in the infrared spectrum.

Correia said AI's weeding struggles could get worse as wild species adapt to agriculture, taking advantage of their ability to cope with changing climate. This type of new domestication can produce crops that are more environmentally sustainable and higher yielding, but can also be difficult to distinguish from their unchanged ancestors.

“We're trying to change a very small number of genes to increase productivity,” Correia says. “It would be great if he could change one or two more genes to make them more recognizable and to be able to use robots to weed.”

charles fox The University of Lincoln in the UK says there is precedent for intentionally changing the color of crops. Orange carrots were not common until producers selectively bred stable varieties. But he thinks genetic modification is probably not the easiest way to improve the effectiveness of weed-killing robots.

“Other methods would probably be much easier and less controversial because people generally don't like genetic modification,” Fox says. “Sounds like a lot of effort.”

Correia says he's not suggesting creating something new or adding animal genes. The research involves modifying crop genomes to incorporate genes for pigments already produced in other plants. “We're just making some changes to the crop so they can eat it too,” he says. “We'll have to test everything and test for side effects and things like that, but I think it's quite possible.”