Great plant, but unfortunately tastes awful
With the help of CRISPR gene editing, biologist Dr Pascal Hunziker wants to tap into previously neglected crops for sustainable food production – and make them edible.
Dr Pascal Hunziker presents his research on CRISPR gene editing in previously neglected crops such as mashua.
Tropaeolum tuberosum, also known as mashua, sounds like the perfect superfood: native to the Andes and belonging to the nasturtium family, this tuber is more nutritious than potatoes, very high-yielding, disease-resistant, UV-tolerant, rich in protein, vitamin C and antioxidants, and has an excellent amino acid composition. It has long been used in traditional medicine. However, it also has a few drawbacks, at least for now.
It is still not ideal for cultivation in Europe and is basically inedible in terms of taste. Dr Pascal Hunziker, Research Associate at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) at Heidelberg University, wants to change both with the help of modern plant breeding. He explained exactly how on Wednesday morning on the Future Lab Stage at FRUIT LOGISTICA 2026 in a presentation entitled: "Domestication on demand: CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is being used to develop neglected crops for a changing climate".
Prepared for climate change
According to Hunziker, there are around 12,000 crop species worldwide that are grown and consumed locally but have so far received little attention from research and the global market despite their high nutritional value and climate resilience. Mashua was one of them. Until now. With his team, the biologist wants to change this and, based on this case study, also advance genome technology in general in order to develop new crops and tap into their potential for global food security.
To do this, Hunziker uses DNA-free CRISPR editing, also known as gene scissors, a molecular biological technique for cutting a DNA strand at a specific location and modifying it there. Unlike conventional domestication techniques, which take a very long time, this gene editing is fast and precise, almost tailor-made, with almost no mutations. "This allows the decisive characteristics to be identified and improved within a short development cycle," explained the researcher. This method has already been used on wild tomatoes, for example.
Like wasabi, only inedible
The goals of gene editing are twofold. Firstly, the mashua plant currently depends on short days to form tubers, which means that in Europe this would only be possible in late October, increasing the risk of frost damage. The aim is therefore to make the plant compatible for cultivation outside the Andes.
Secondly, "Unfortunately, mashua has a rather unpleasant, very strange taste. It is very bitter and reminiscent of wasabi, but without the good aspects," says Hunziker. Even though the CRISPR method is fast and successful, there is still a long way to go before mashua tubers are available in our supermarkets. "The market would first have to be created," said the expert.