The ideal cultivated plant is tasty and high-yielding, as well as resistant to diseases and pests. But if the corresponding genes are located far apart on the chromosome, some of these positive traits may be lost in the selection process. To ensure that all positive traits are transmitted together, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) used CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors to invert and genetically deactivate the nine tenth chromosomes of Arabidopsis, reports Phys.org portal. The traits encoded in this part of the chromosome become "invisible" to genetic exchange and thus can be passed on unchanged.
Targeted editing, insertion or suppression genes in plants is possible using CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors. This method can be used to increase plant resistance to pests, diseases or environmental impacts environment.
“In recent years, for the first time, we have been able to use CRISPR/Cas not only to edit genes, but also to change the structure of chromosomes,” says Prof. Holger Puchta, who has been studying gene scissors with his team at the China Botanical Institute for 30 years.
Now researchers have been able to prevent genetic exchange, which is usually part of the hereditary process, but can disrupt relationships between traits. Until now, if plant traits were to be passed on together, the genes for those traits had to be close together on the same chromosome. If such genes are further apart, they usually separate during inheritance, so a useful trait may be lost in the selection process.
In their research, scientists followed the example of nature. “Inversions — a kind of genetic invisibility — also often occur on a smaller scale in wild and cultivated plants. We have learned lessons from nature, applied and expanded our knowledge of natural process", says Puchta.
In collaboration with Prof. Andreas Huben of the Institute for Plant Genetics and Cultivated Plant Research. Leibniz (IPK) Puchta and his team flipped nine-tenths of the chromosomes in a model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. Only at the ends of the chromosomes did the genes retain their original sequence. “With these fragments, the chromosome can be passed on to the next generation just like other chromosomes and not completely lost,” Puchta says.
For effective cultivation of agricultural crops, it is important to combine as many favorable traits as possible in one plant. “Of course, plant breeders want their products to be delicious, contain as many vitamins as possible, and also disease resistant. With our method, we can simplify this in the future,” Puchta says.