-
Categories
-
Pharmaceutical Intermediates
-
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients
-
Food Additives
- Industrial Coatings
- Agrochemicals
- Dyes and Pigments
- Surfactant
- Flavors and Fragrances
- Chemical Reagents
- Catalyst and Auxiliary
- Natural Products
- Inorganic Chemistry
-
Organic Chemistry
-
Biochemical Engineering
- Analytical Chemistry
-
Cosmetic Ingredient
- Water Treatment Chemical
-
Pharmaceutical Intermediates
Promotion
ECHEMI Mall
Wholesale
Weekly Price
Exhibition
News
-
Trade Service
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology write in Nature Biotechnology that breakthroughs in the CRISPR tool, aka "gene scissors," are being used to edit plant genomes, marking a change
in methodology.
By combining grafting with "mobile" CRISPR tools, this discovery could simplify and accelerate the development of
new, genetically stable commercial crop varieties.
The unmodified buds are grafted onto roots containing removable CRISPR/Cas9, which allows genetic scissors to move from root to bud
.
It edits plant DNA there, but does not leave its own mark
in the next generation of plants.
This breakthrough will save time and money, circumvent current limitations in plant breeding, and contribute to sustainable food solutions
for multiple crops.
Many of the crops that feed the world are already threatened by heat, drought and plant pests and diseases, which are being further exacerbated by climate change
.
To ensure efficient and effective crop yields for these important plants in the future under challenging conditions, plant genomes can be edited with high precision using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to introduce beneficial gene functions or remove unfavorable gene functions
.
Although CRISPR/Cas9 is a huge advance in plant breeding, it is still an expensive and laborious solution that makes its application in most plants unfeasible
.
Recent advances by a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany overcome these limitations
.
Commercial crop plants need to be genetically stable, they cannot contain any genetic sequences from the CRISPR/Cas9 system, and they should be
GMO-free.
Typically, this is achieved through multiple generations of outcrossing or tedious regeneration processes
.
Both methods are time- and money-intensive and difficult, even impossible
in many crop cultivation.
A team of scientists led by Friedrich Kragler set out to change that
.
As part of the EU-funded PLAMOR project and the proof-of-concept project funded by German Research, they are studying the transport sequence
that moves RNA from roots to buds.
The team discovered tRNA-like sequences (TLS), which act as signals
for RNA to move long distances within plants.
The most recent breakthrough is combining this discovery with the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system
.
When such TLS is added to the CRISPR/Cas9 sequence, the plant produces a "mobile" version of the CRISPR/Cas9 RNA
.
The genetically modified-free, unmodified buds are then transplanted into plant roots containing mobile CRISPR/Cas9 RNA, then from root to bud and eventually into the flowers
that produce the seed.
"Magic happens in flowers," Kragler explains
.
"CRISPR/Cas9 RNA enters and converts into the corresponding protein, which is a real 'gene scissors'
.
It edits plant DNA
in flowers.
But the CRISPR/Cas9 system itself is not integrated into DNA
.
Thus, the seeds that develop from these flowers carry only the required edits
.
There is no trace of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the next generation of plants, and it works surprisingly efficiently
.
”
What makes this new system even more exciting is its potential to bring different species together
.
The scientists showed that this "editing" method is not only effective when the roots and shoots come from the same plant – in this case, the model plant is Arabidopsis
.
They also grafted shoots from their commercial relative, canola, onto Arabidopsis roots, creating mobile CRISPR/Cas9
.
Encouragingly, Friedrich Kragler's team also found edited canola plants
.
"Our novel gene-editing system can be used efficiently in many breeding programs and crop plants
.
This includes many important agricultural plant species that are difficult or impossible to adapt
with existing methods.
He concluded
.
Lei Yang, Frank Machin, Shuangfeng Wang, Eleftheria Saplaoura und Friedrich Kragler.
Heritable transgene-free genome editing in plants by grafting of wild-type shoots to transgenic donor rootstocks.
Nature Biotechnology
