Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) develops world's first AI-designed gene editor for crops

Key facts

• Scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Central Rice Research Institute developed the world's first AI-designed genome-editing tool for plants.
• The tool functions as a molecular scalpel to rewrite plant DNA to develop traits such as disease resistance, climate resilience, and higher yield.
• Unlike existing CRISPR systems that rely on naturally occurring microbial proteins, this tool uses artificial intelligence to design entirely new enzymes from scratch.
• The research team was led by scientist Kutubuddin Ali Molla.
• The AI-designed enzymes enable gene knockout, base editing, and prime editing in crops.