College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

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    Plant genome editing with TALEN and CRISPR
    (Springer Nature, 2017-04-24) Malzahn, Aimee; Lowder, Levi; Qi, Yiping
    Genome editing promises giant leaps forward in advancing biotechnology, agriculture, and basic research. The process relies on the use of sequence specific nucleases (SSNs) to make DNA double stranded breaks at user defined genomic loci, which are subsequently repaired by two main DNA repair pathways: non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and homology directed repair (HDR). NHEJ can result in frameshift mutations that often create genetic knockouts. These knockout lines are useful for functional and reverse genetic studies but also have applications in agriculture. HDR has a variety of applications as it can be used for gene replacement, gene stacking, and for creating various fusion proteins. In recent years, transcription activator-like effector nucleases and clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR associated protein 9 or CRISPR from Prevotella and Francisella 1 have emerged as the preferred SSNs for research purposes. Here, we review their applications in plant research, discuss current limitations, and predict future research directions in plant genome editing.
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    A large-scale whole-genome sequencing analysis reveals highly specific genome editing by both Cas9 and Cpf1 (Cas12a) nucleases in rice
    (Springer Nature, 2018-07-04) Tang, Xu; Liu, Guanqing; Zhou, Jianping; Ren, Qiurong; You, Qi; Tian, Li; Xin, Xuhui; Zhong, Zhaohui; Liu, Binglin; Zheng, Xuelian; Zhang, Dengwei; Malzahn, Aimee; Gong, Zhiyun; Qi, Yiping; Zhang, Tao; Zhang, Yong
    Targeting specificity has been a barrier to applying genome editing systems in functional genomics, precise medicine and plant breeding. In plants, only limited studies have used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to test off-target effects of Cas9. The cause of numerous discovered mutations is still controversial. Furthermore, WGS-based off-target analysis of Cpf1 (Cas12a) has not been reported in any higher organism to date. We conduct a WGS analysis of 34 plants edited by Cas9 and 15 plants edited by Cpf1 in T0 and T1 generations along with 20 diverse control plants in rice. The sequencing depths range from 45× to 105× with read mapping rates above 96%. Our results clearly show that most mutations in edited plants are created by the tissue culture process, which causes approximately 102 to 148 single nucleotide variations (SNVs) and approximately 32 to 83 insertions/deletions (indels) per plant. Among 12 Cas9 single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) and three Cpf1 CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) assessed by WGS, only one Cas9 sgRNA resulted in off-target mutations in T0 lines at sites predicted by computer programs. Moreover, we cannot find evidence for bona fide off-target mutations due to continued expression of Cas9 or Cpf1 with guide RNAs in T1 generation. Our comprehensive and rigorous analysis of WGS data across multiple sample types suggests both Cas9 and Cpf1 nucleases are very specific in generating targeted DNA modifications and off-targeting can be avoided by designing guide RNAs with high specificity.