CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing to confer turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) resistance in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa)

Abstract

Genome editing approaches, particularly the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, are becoming state-of-the-art for trait development in numerous breeding programs. Significant advances in improving plant traits are enabled by this influential tool, especially for disease resistance, compared to traditional breeding. One of the potyviruses, the turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), is the most widespread and damaging virus that infects Brassica spp. worldwide. We generated the targeted mutation at the eIF(iso)4E gene in the TuMV-susceptible cultivar “Seoul” using CRISPR/Cas9 to develop TuMV-resistant Chinese cabbage. We detected several heritable indel mutations in the edited T0 plants and developed T1 through generational progression. It was indicated in the sequence analysis of the eIF(iso)4E-edited T1 plants that the mutations were transferred to succeeding generations. These edited T1 plants conferred resistance to TuMV. It was shown with ELISA analysis the lack of accumulation of viral particles. Furthermore, we found a strong negative correlation (r = −0.938) between TuMV resistance and the genome editing frequency of eIF(iso)4E. Consequently, it was revealed in this study that CRISPR/Cas9 technique can expedite the breeding process to improve traits in Chinese cabbage plants.

CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated HY5 Gene Editing Reduces Growth Inhibition in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa) under ER Stress

“…Among the species subjected to such advancements is Brassica rapa, where high-efficiency Agrobacterium-mediated transformations have been widely conducted [60][61][62]. Indeed, numerous studies confirm the feasibility of engineering Chinese cabbage using these methods [60][61][62][63][64]. In our study, we employed genome editing on the Chinese cabbage cultivar 'Seoul', known for its high transformation efficiency.…”

A natural substitution of a conserved amino acid in eIF4E confers resistance against multiple potyviruses

“…Recessive resistance against potyviruses is usually related to mutations in eIF4E (Kang et al., 2005 ; Lee et al., 2023 ; Liu et al., 2017 ). In this study, we show that the amino acid substitution D71G in watermelon eIF4E, which is present in many of the potyvirus‐resistant watermelon accessions, confers resistance to PRSV‐W and ZYMV in watermelon by disrupting the interaction between eIF4E and VPg.…”

“…Viruses of the genus Potyvirus in the family Potyviridae constitute the largest group of plant‐infecting RNA viruses and infect a wide range of plants (Gadhave et al., 2020 ). Most identified recessive resistance genes to potyviruses encode eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) family proteins (Kang et al., 2005 ; Lee et al., 2023 ; Liu et al., 2017 ). The viral genome‐linked protein (VPg) of potyviruses is covalently linked to the 5′ end of the viral RNA and interacts with eIF4E family proteins by serving as an m7G cap analogue of the mRNAs (Choudhary & Suresh, 2020 ; Khan et al., 2008 ).…”