Diverse novel RNA polymerase III promoters and dual-activity promoters identified through motif and transcriptomic analyses across multiple plant species.
Weerasinghe PR, Tsugama D
Crispr
Every rice variety, wheat strain, and corn hybrid you've ever grown carries hidden genetic control switches that scientists are only now beginning to decode — and understanding them is what makes precision crop improvement possible without off-target effects.
Inside plant cells, certain short stretches of DNA act like on/off switches that tell the cell's machinery to make tiny helper molecules. Scientists scanned the genomes of nine major food crops and found hundreds of these switches they'd never catalogued before. They also discovered a few switches in rice that can activate two different types of machinery at the same time, which could eventually let plant breeders use simpler tools to make targeted, precise changes to crop DNA.
Key Findings
824 non-coding RNA genes across 14 categories were identified as candidates controlled by a specific type of cellular machinery (RNA Polymerase III) across nine plant species including eight major crops.
Small RNA sequencing revealed that expression levels vary significantly not just between species but within gene families, meaning promoters must be chosen species-by-species for effective use in editing tools.
Several rice promoters showed dual activity — able to drive two different molecular machines simultaneously — confirmed by GFP reporter signals, though gene-editing efficiency in this single-promoter architecture was low.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers mapped the genetic switches that control small RNA production across nine crop plants, uncovering hundreds of previously unknown regulatory sequences and a handful that can drive two different molecular machines at once — a step toward simpler, more compact gene-editing tools for agriculture.
Abstract Preview
RNA polymerase III (Pol III) promoters are essential tools for driving small RNAs such as guide RNAs and CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) in CRISPR-Cas systems, yet their diversity and regulatory potential in ...
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