New method isolates plant DNA sections without genetic engineering
Crispr
The grapevines and tomatoes growing in gardens and vineyards could benefit faster from disease-resistance or flavor research now that scientists can study their gene-control regions without years spent creating genetically modified test plants first.
Think of a plant's DNA as a huge library, and scientists want to pull out one specific book to study it closely. Normally they'd have to genetically modify the plant first just to get the right tools inside the cells, which takes a long time and doesn't work well for every plant species. This new method, called GRASP, uses a molecular tool that can go straight into the cell's nucleus and grab the exact DNA segment researchers want, tested successfully in grapevine and tomato plants.
Key Findings
GRASP uses dCas9-gRNA complexes to isolate specific chromatin regions directly from purified plant nuclei, bypassing the need for plant transformation
The method successfully enriched telomeric repeats, low-copy, and single-copy genomic regions in both grapevine and tomato, validated by qPCR and next-generation sequencing
GRASP creates a platform for future studies of chromatin-associated proteins, distal DNA-DNA interactions, and chromatin-associated RNAs across diverse plant species and tissues
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a new tool called GRASP that can grab and isolate specific pieces of DNA from plant cells without needing to genetically engineer the plant first, using grapevine and tomato to prove it works. This makes it much easier for researchers to study how plant genes are controlled, since they can skip the slow, technically tricky step of creating transgenic plants.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
GRASP: a plant transformation-independent CRISPR-based system for affinity purification of specific chromatin loci
ABSTRACT Chromatin organization regulates genome stability and gene expression by controlling DNA accessibility to transcription factors and regulatory complexes. DNA-protein interactions are commo...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of about 80 species of twining plants in the family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine....