Optimized tRNA processing and TREX2-SpCas9 fusion enable high-efficiency multiplex genome editing in plants.
Xu Z, Qiu S, Tan Y, Kuang Y, Yang C
Crispr
Rice varieties that resist new blights, tolerate flooding, and need less fertilizer all at once have been nearly impossible to breed quickly — this tool lets researchers stack those improvements in a single experiment rather than across decades of crossing and selection.
Changing one gene in a plant is hard enough; changing several at the same time is even trickier because the editing tools often lose accuracy or stop working entirely. This research team solved that by attaching an extra protein to their editing tool that helps it cut DNA more decisively, and by borrowing tiny molecular guides already built into the rice plant itself. The upgraded system edits more targets successfully in one go, paving the way for rice — and eventually other crops — with multiple desirable traits engineered at once.
Key Findings
The TREX2-SpCas9 fusion protein produced higher editing efficiency and larger DNA deletions than standard SpCas9 or other exonuclease-fused versions tested.
Screening 38 endogenous rice tRNA genes identified 13 high-performing candidates that can reliably process multiple guide RNAs from a single genetic construct.
Combining the TREX2-SpCas9 fusion with the optimized tRNA array achieved high-efficiency simultaneous editing across multiple genomic loci in rice.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists built a more powerful version of CRISPR for rice that can edit many genes at once with greater precision and efficiency. By fusing a DNA-chewing protein to the editing tool and using the plant's own RNA machinery as a guide, the system outperforms previous approaches and could speed up breeding of crops with multiple improved traits simultaneously.
Abstract Preview
Multiplex genome editing enables the simultaneous modification of multiple genomic loci, which is essential for understanding gene networks and engineering complex traits in crops. However, achievi...
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