A rapid and efficient method to obtain germline gene editing in plants

一种快速有效的植物种系基因编辑方法

• 批准号: BB/T011920/1
• 负责人: Stephen Jackson
• 金额: $ 19.31万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FT011920%2F1
• 关键词: rapid; efficient; method; obtain; germline

Breeding new improved crops generally involves identifying a plant gene that brings an improved characteristic, for example increased yield or disease resistance, and then putting that improved gene into the crop variety that is grown commercially (often replacing the existing gene that was there). The new gene editing techniques that have recently been developed (and have made news headlines) now enable researchers to change the sequence of an existing gene in a plant in a very specific way so that it confers the improved characteristic without the need to transfer foreign genes into the crop plant. Most commonly such gene editing approaches in plants involve genetic transformation and as a result those plants are classed as GMOs. This project will develop an alternative approach that will enable precise gene editing of plants for crop improvement without the need to make transgenic plants. As with gene therapy, which is used in medicine for treatment of some diseases, we will use a virus (in this case a plant virus) as a vector to get the components needed for gene editing into the plant cell. Plant viruses have long been used to express foreign genes in plants, for example for the production of vaccines. The problem is that plants have a mechanism to exclude viruses from their meristems which are the parts of the plant that go on to make flowers and seed. This is problematic for gene editing as it prevents the new improved version of the gene from being inherited in the next generation.The novelty of this research project is that we will create a virus vector that is able to get into the meristems of plants and so the gene editing will be able to occur in the meristem. This means that seed can be harvested that contains the improved version of the gene. In this way scientists and crop breeders will be able to create a large number of gene edited plants without having to make transgenic plants.Another advantage of being able to use this new virus vector for gene editing is that it is able to infect more than 400 species, an order of magnitude more than can be currently genetically transformed, and so it will greatly expand the number of crops that can be improved by gene editing, including many crops that are grown in developing countries.

繁殖新的改进的农作物通常涉及鉴定带来改善特征的植物基因，例如增加产量或抗病性，然后将改善基因改进到商业上种植的农作物品种（通常取代那里的现有基因）。最近已经开发出（并成为新闻头条）的新基因编辑技术使研究人员能够以非常特定的方式更改植物中现有基因的顺序进入作物植物。植物中最常见的基因编辑方法涉及遗传转化，因此这些植物被归类为转基因生物。该项目将开发一种替代方法，该方法将使植物的精确基因编辑进行作物改善，而无需制造转基因植物。与用于治疗某些疾病的基因疗法一样，我们将使用病毒（在本例中为植物病毒）作为载体，以获取基因编辑植物细胞所需的成分。长期以来，植物病毒已被用来表达植物中的外源基因，例如用于疫苗的生产。问题在于植物具有将病毒从分生组织中排除的机制，这是植物的部分生产花和种子的部分。对于基因编辑而言，这是有问题的，因为它可以防止新的基因的新版本在下一代中继承。该研究项目的新颖性是我们将创建一个能够进入植物的生命层的病毒媒介，因此基因编辑将能够在分生组织中发生。这意味着可以收获种子，其中含有改进的基因版本。通过这种方式，科学家和农作物育种者将能够创建大量基因编辑的植物而不必制造转基因植物。其他能够将这种新病毒载体用于基因编辑的优势是它能够感染超过400多个物种，比目前可以转化的数量级要多，因此它将大大扩大基因编辑可以改善的农作物数量，其中包括许多在发展中国家种植的农作物。