Research Associate, head genome editing team Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf, Germany
Bacterial leaf blight, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), is a destructive rice disease in Asia and Africa. The development of CRISPR/Cas genome editing toolbox to control this disease in indica rice is in great demand. Upon infection, Xoo transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors induce three rice sucrose transporter-encoding genes including OsSWEET11, OsSWEET13 and OsSWEET14. The activation of these SWEET sugar efflux transporters likely provides nutrients to the pathogen, allowing it to amplify and cause the disease. In previous studies, six TAL effectors binding elements (EBEs) in SWEET promoters were found: PthXo1 in the SWEET11 promoter, PthXo2 in the SWEET13 promoter, TalC, TalF, PthXo3 and AvrXa7 in the SWEET14 promoter. Editing these EBEs prevents binding of Xoo TAL effectors and the activation of SWEET genes, leading to broad-spectrum resistance against Xoo. In this study, we provide a genome editing toolbox including CRISPR/Cpf1 constructs and transformation pipeline to edit these EBEs and develop broad-spectrum resistance of indica rice against Xoo.
Coauthors: Chonghui Ji – Iowa State University;Melissa Stiebner – HH University of Düsseldorf;Paula Maldonado – HH University of Düsseldorf;Bing Yang – University of Missouri; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center;Wolf Frommer – HH University of Düsseldorf; Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding
