Trials and Tribulations

A field trial with poplars that were engineered to make wood containing less lignin. Most plants showed large improvements in processing efficiency. However, was that the reduction in lignin accomplished with the technology we used then—RNA interference—was unstable and the trees grew less tall. Then they employed the recent CRISPR/Cas9 technology in poplar to lower the lignin amount in a stable way, without causing a biomass yield penalty.