Unlocking Cassavas' Genetic secrets
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the main food staple in Ghana, crucial for sustenance and income for many families. It makes up 22% of Ghana's Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) and with an impressive per capita consumption rate of 152 kg, it is also responsible for 30% of the average daily calorie intake (Acheampong et al., 2021). Cassava is a prime example of an ‘orphan crop’, i.e. crops which have been under-researched in comparison to worldwide cash crops such as maize or rice (Yaqoob et al., 2023). One of cassava’s most intriguing secrets is its resistance to drought (Yaqoob et al., 2023), which can help the world face the challenges of climate change and a growing population.
In changing environmental conditions, such as exposure to drought, an organism responds by activating specific genes. Key regulators of gene activity are parts of DNA called ‘enhancers’ - specific sections of DNA that act like power boosters to increase gene expression. Standard genomics methods struggle to identify enhancers accurately because their activity is highly dependent on the context around them and they can be very far from their target genes (Wang et al., 2020).