With a growing global population, more and more people need access to food to prevent hunger and lack of nutrients to stay healthy. In 2024, the global population is over 8 billion people and rising even further, as in 2024 it is expected that — on average, worldwide — 4.3 children will be born and 2.0 people die every second.
To make sure that we all have enough to eat, we can improve how we currently grow and handle food in many ways. These include:
- reducing the amount of food waste
- increasing yields
- growing other products
- using technology to improve the supply chain
- using food leftovers in new products
- improving food production
- producing food artificially
- inspiring others to make more environmentally friendly food choices
Another way to improve current practices to make sure we all have enough to eat is to make crops more resistant to diseases. Making crops more resistant to diseases is important because diseases are currently threatening food production and security worldwide. For example, about 1 in every 3 rice grains is lost because of a disease, about 1 in every 4 corn, about 1 in every 5 wheat grains and soybeans, and about 1 in every 6 potatoes. By making crops more resistant, we can increase increase yields.
A common way in large-scale agriculture to prevent crops from being affected by diseases is using herbicides and pesticides. And while they are effective, using pesticides also has many disadvantages, especially when too much is used. These disadvantages not only affect plants that are sprayed, but also the insects that live on them, us when we eat plants with these chemicals on them, and the environment. For example, pesticides can end up in nearby rivers and lakes and eventually in our drinking water.

Chemical pesticides are often used to protect plants against diseases (credit: Fotokostic on Shutterstock)
While also many more environmentally friendly options are available, some have limitations. For example, breeding more disease-resistant crops can take a long time. And they may not always turn out to be effective when harmful microorganisms and pests evolve as well or develop resistance to new defense mechanisms.
To overcome limitations, new methods are being developed to make crops more resistant to diseases; diseases caused by different types of harmful species and by multiple members of one harmful species. One of these methods is genetic engineering that targets 2OGDs. 2OGD is the abbreviation of 2-oxoglutarate (2OG)-dependent oxygenases, which is a mouthful, but basically are special proteins found everywhere in nature that support various chemical reactions in plants and animals. These chemical reactions are part of processes and functions that indirectly improve plants’ resistance to diseases. This is because these special proteins can repair DNA, regulate gene activity, and improve plant cell walls. They are also involved in producing plant hormones, which are important for regulating plant growth and development, and dealing with stress such as diseases.
These are the steps to make this method work:
How plants’ immune system works
The first step to make genetic engineering that targets 2OGDs work is to understand how plants’ immune systems work. A plant’s immune system can detect invading microorganisms that cause diseases in two ways.
The first way plants detect invading microorganisms is by applying pattern matching. This pattern matching is done by proteins on their surface, which recognize molecules of harmful microorganisms. When these molecules are detected, signals are sent to the immune system which then for example quickly releases calcium ions, molecules that easily react with other molecules, and plant hormones to protect the plant. This video nicely explains how this works (1:44–2:43):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A6Kd2hcW3I
The second way plants detect invading microorganisms is by recognizing small molecules that are produced by harmful organisms inside the plant’s cells to influence these cells’ behavior. These small molecules can be recognized by proteins that are produced by plant resistance genes. These genes are critical to the plant’s immune system.
The role of genes
The second step to make genetic engineering that targets 2OGDs work is to understand how these genes are exactly involved in producing proteins that can protect the plant. Especially genes that provide resistance against at least two types of harmful microorganisms or more than one member of one species are interesting, as they make the plant resistant to a broader spectrum of diseases. One of the proteins that are produced by plant resistance genes is 2OGD.
While plant DNA contains genes that can trigger the production of 2OGD proteins that support the plant’s resistance to diseases, some 2OGD genes have the opposite effect and make a plant less resistant to diseases. This means that when these genes are deactivated, resistance increases.
Genetic manipulation
The third step to make genetic engineering that targets 2OGDs work is to either deactivate genes that reduce plant resistance or cause genes that improve resistance to produce more copies of the protective protein.
A genetic manipulation technology to do this is CRISPR/Cas9. This technology allows experts to edit DNA. When a gene needs to be deactivated permanently, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to find a specific DNA section and cut the DNA strand in this location. When the cell tries to repair the cut, errors are often introduced in the DNA, causing the gene to be disabled. Alternatively, when a gene needs to be deactivated temporarily, this technology can be used to find a specific DNA section and attract certain enzymes that block copying this part of the DNA.
When a gene needs to be activated — for example to produce more 2OGD proteins — a similar procedure can be used, but instead of targeting blocking enzymes, enzymes that copy DNA can be attracted. By attracting these copying enzymes, this piece of DNA is transcribed more often, resulting in larger protein production.
These methods are also explained in this video:
Importantly, disrupting genes with this technology does not seem to affect the yield per plant.
How we can take action
So, genetic manipulation can be used to make plants more resistant to diseases by deactivating genes that limit resistance and by copying genes more often that contribute to staying healthy.
While this technology can only be applied by experts, here are practical ideas of what you and I can do in daily life to make plants more resistant to diseases:
Using natural farming practices that improve the natural resistance of plants, such as crop rotation, use of resistant varieties,
- Buying food that is grown using climate-smart pest management instead of chemical pesticides
- Buying organic food
- Buying food that is grown using climate-smart pest management instead of chemical pesticides
- Growing your own food
- Encouraging government policies that reduce chemical use in food production or encourage environmentally friendly practices
Which one of these can you implement in your daily life? And do you have further ideas of what you and I could do? Thank you in advance for putting them into practice and sharing them in a comment to this question to inspire all of us.
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About the author
Dr. Erlijn van Genuchten is a an internationally recognized environmental sustainability expert. She is a science communicator, helping scientists in the fields of nature and sustainability increase the outreach of their results and allowing us all to put scientific insights into practice and contribute to a sustainable future. Erlijn has inspired thousands of people around the world — for example — by supporting the United Nations with her expertise, her book “A Guide to A Healthier Planet” published by Springer Nature, her YouTube channel Xplore Nature, and her posts on social media.
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