Scientists edit fern genes to study smoke-signal responses
Wu A, Yoshiya S, Kyozuka J, Hata Y
Crispr
The fern spores that colonize a burned patch of forest floor after a wildfire are following ancient chemical cues from smoke, and this research gives scientists a new tool to figure out exactly how that works.
Researchers took a specialized gene-editing method usually used on flowering plants and got it working in a fern for the first time, successfully disabling a gene involved in sensing karrikins, chemical signals found in smoke that trigger seed and spore germination after fires. This matters because ferns are genetically very different from the flowering plants that dominate most lab research, so having working CRISPR tools for them opens up whole new questions about how plants evolved to respond to fire and stress.
Key Findings
Researchers adapted a ribozyme-gRNA-ribozyme (RGR) CRISPR/Cas9 system for use in Ceratopteris richardii, a model fern species
The system successfully generated loss-of-function mutants in the KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 (KAI2) gene, which is involved in sensing smoke-derived karrikin compounds
This represents one of the first demonstrations of targeted CRISPR gene editing in a fern, a lineage that diverged from flowering plants over 300 million years ago
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists successfully used CRISPR gene-editing tools to knock out a key signaling gene in a fern, opening the door to studying how ferns respond to fire-derived chemical cues and expanding gene-editing techniques beyond typical crop plants.
Species Mentioned
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Ceratopteris richardii is a fern species belonging to the genus Ceratopteris, one of only two genera of the subfamily Parkerioideae of the family Pteridaceae. It is one of several genera of ferns adapted to an aquatic existence. C. richardii was previously regarded as being part of the species Ce...