Generation of imidazolinone herbicide resistant trait in Arabidopsis

PLoS One. 2020 May 22;15(5):e0233503. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233503. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Recently-emerged base editing technologies could create single base mutations at precise genomic positions without generation DNA double strand breaks. Herbicide resistant mutations have been successfully introduced to different plant species, including Arabidopsis, watermelon, wheat, potato and tomato via C to T (or G to A on the complementary strand) base editors (CBE) at the P197 position of endogenous acetolactate synthase (ALS) genes. Additionally, G to A conversion to another conserved amino acid S653 on ALS gene could confer tolerance to imidazolinone herbicides. However, no such mutation was successfully generated via CBE, likely due to the target C base is outside of the classic base editing window. Since CBE driven by egg cell (EC) specific promoter would re-edit the wild type alleles in egg cells and early embryos, we hypothesized the diversity of base editing outcomes could be largely increased at later generations to allow selection of desired herbicide resistant mutants. To test this hypothesis, we aimed to introduce C to T conversion to the complement strand of S653 codon at ALS gene, hosting a C at the 10th position within the 20-nt spacer sequence outside of the classic base editing window. While we did not detect base-edited T1 plants, efficient and diverse base edits emerged at later generations. Herbicide resistant mutants with different editing outcomes were recovered when T3 and T4 seeds were subject to herbicide selection. As expected, most herbicide resistant plants contained S653N mutation as a result of G10 to A10. Our results showed that CBE could create imidazolinone herbicide resistant trait in Arabidopsis and be potentially applied to crops to facilitate weed control.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetolactate Synthase / genetics
  • Amino Acid Substitution
  • Arabidopsis / drug effects*
  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics
  • Base Sequence
  • CRISPR-Cas Systems
  • DNA, Plant / genetics
  • Gene Editing
  • Genes, Plant
  • Herbicide Resistance / genetics*
  • Herbicides / pharmacology
  • Imidazolines / pharmacology
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Plant Breeding
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / drug effects
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Selection, Genetic
  • Weed Control

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • DNA, Plant
  • Herbicides
  • Imidazolines
  • Acetolactate Synthase

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Transgenic Science and Technology Program (2019ZX08010-003), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872933).