Researchers used gene editing to create new male sterile lines of wheat

The wheat molecular breeding innovation team of the Crop Research Institute published a research paper entitled "CRISPR/Cas9-targeted mutagenesis of TaDCL4, TaDCL5 and TaRDR6 induces male sterility in common wheat" online in the journal Plant Biotechnology Journal (IF=13.
263).

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As the world's population grows, world food production needs to increase by more than
60 per cent by 2050.
Wheat is one of
the most widely grown and important food crops in the world.
Hybrid wheat has obvious comprehensive performance in terms of high yield, stable yield and stress resistance, and its hybrid advantage rate is about 3.
5-20%.

Therefore, the use of hybrid breeding technology to create hybrid wheat is one of the
effective ways to increase wheat yield.
At present, wheat nucleus male sterile germplasm resources are scarce, and there are very few
genes that have been cloned to control nuclear male sterility.

This study used the CRISPR/Cas9 system mediated by Agrobacterium to precisely edit three key genes DCL4, DCL5 and RDR6 in the phasiRNA synthesis pathway associated with the development of stamens in wheat, creating a new male sterile line of wheat and elucidating the causes of
pollen sterilization.
The study found that DCL4 and RDR6 genes were involved in the meiotic process of wheat pollen mother cells, and DCL5 genes were only involved in the development of microspores
.
Through small molecule RNA sequencing, DCL4 and DCL5 were involved in the production of 21-nt and 24-nt phasiRNA in wheat, respectively, and RDR6 was involved in the production process
of both.
The target genes of these phasiRNAs are mainly involved in the meiotic process of wheat, the differentiation of the velvet felt layer and the development of pollen wall
.
This study is the first to elucidate the molecular mechanism of small RNA participation in stamens development in wheat, which provides new genetic resources
for male sterility in wheat nucleus.

Dr.
Rongzhi Zhang and Dr.
Shujuan Zhang from the Crop Research Institute are the co-first authors of the paper, and Prof.
Genying Li and Prof.
Yulian Li are co-corresponding authors
of the paper.
The research was supported
by the Shandong Agricultural Seed Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Key R&D Program of Shandong Province (Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Project) and the Taishan Youth Fund of Shandong Province.

Phenotypes of wheat DCL4, DCL5, and RDR6 mutants