Efficient breeding of low glutelin content rice germplasm by simultaneous editing multiple glutelin genes via CRISPR/Cas9

Zhihui Chen; Hongxu Du; Yajun Tao; Yang Xu; Fangquan Wang; Bin Li; Qian-Hao Zhu; Hongbin Niu; Jie Yang

doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111449

Efficient breeding of low glutelin content rice germplasm by simultaneous editing multiple glutelin genes via CRISPR/Cas9

Plant Sci. 2022 Nov:324:111449. doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111449. Epub 2022 Sep 1.

Authors

Zhihui Chen¹, Hongxu Du², Yajun Tao¹, Yang Xu³, Fangquan Wang¹, Bin Li¹, Qian-Hao Zhu⁴, Hongbin Niu⁵, Jie Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences / Nanjing Branch of Chinese National Center for Rice Improvement, Nanjing 210014, Jiangsu, China; Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, Jiangsu, China.
² College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China.
³ Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences / Nanjing Branch of Chinese National Center for Rice Improvement, Nanjing 210014, Jiangsu, China; Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, Jiangsu, China; Provincial Key Laboratory of Agrobiology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
⁴ CSIRO Agriculture and Food, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. Electronic address: qianhao.zhu@csiro.au.
⁵ College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China. Electronic address: newhobby@163.com.
⁶ Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences / Nanjing Branch of Chinese National Center for Rice Improvement, Nanjing 210014, Jiangsu, China; Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, Jiangsu, China; Provincial Key Laboratory of Agrobiology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: yangjie168@aliyun.com.

PMID: 36058302
DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111449

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and phenylketonuria (PKU) patients need to eat rice with low glutelin content. Therefore, breeding low glutelin content rice varieties with high yield and delicious taste is one of the major goals of rice breeders due to the high demand for the product. In this study, we designed three sgRNAs targeting nine glutelin genes and generated nine T-DNA-free homozygous editing lines with reduced glutelin content compared with the wild-type due to simultaneous mutation(s) in 5-7 glutelin genes. The glutelin content of two lines is even significantly lower than that of the low glutelin content cultivar, LGC-1. Compared to the wild-type, these low glutelin lines showed similar agronomic traits, including yield components and viscosity properties, and can be used as new varieties or parental materials for further breeding.

Keywords: Breeding; CRISPR/Cas9; Gene editing; Glutelin content; Grain quality; Rice.

MeSH terms

CRISPR-Cas Systems / genetics
Gene Editing
Glutens / genetics
Oryza* / genetics
Oryza* / metabolism
Phenotype
Plant Breeding

Substances

Glutens