Kaniganti, S and Palakolanu, S R and Thiombiano, B and Damarasingh, J and Bommineni, P R and Che, P and Sharma, K K and Jones, T and Bouwmeester, H and Bhatnagar-Mathur, P (2025) Developing Striga resistance in sorghum by modulating host cues through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Plant Cell Reports, 44. pp. 1-16. ISSN 0721-7714
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Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is a primary food staple grain for millions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is mainly constrained by the parasitic weed Striga, which causes up to 100% yield losses and affects over 60% of cultivable farmlands and livelihoods. In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 technology is utilized to induce mutations in core strigolactone (SL) biosynthetic genes, i.e., CCD7, CCD8, MAX1, in addition to an uncharacterized gene (DUF) in the fine-mapped 400 kb lgs1 region in sorghum to develop durable Striga resistance. Two sorghum cultivars were delivered with the expression cassettes through immature embryo-based Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Our study demonstrated transformation and gene editing efficiencies of ~ 70 and up to 17.5% (calculated based on the numuber of established plants), respectively, in two sorghum genotypes. Subsequent analysis of homozygous E0 lines in the E1 generation confirmed stable integration of mutations for all targeted genes. Loss-of-function mutations in the CCD7, CCD8, MAX1, and DUF genes led to a significant downregulation of the expression of associated genes in the SL biosynthetic pathway. The phenotypic analysis of edited lines revealed changes in phenotypic patterns compared to wild-type plants. Analysis of root exudates showed significant reductions in SL production in edited lines compared to wild-type plants. Striga infection experiments demonstrated delayed or reduced emergence rates of Striga in edited lines with lower SL production, highlighting the potential for genetically altering SL production to control Striga infestations. This study provides insights into the functional roles of CCD7, CCD8, MAX1, and DUF genes in sorghum towards reduced and/or altered SL production and improved resistance to Striga infestations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Global Research Program - Accelerated Crop Improvement |
| CRP: | CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC) |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | CRISPR/Cas9, DUF, Gene editing, Sorghum, Striga, Striglolactones, Orobanchol |
| Subjects: | Others > Genetic Engineering Mandate crops > Sorghum Others > Genetics and Genomics |
| Depositing User: | Mr Nagaraju T |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Apr 2025 05:56 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Apr 2025 05:56 |
| URI: | http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/13023 |
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00299-0... |
| Projects: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Funders: | CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC) supported by CGIAR Fund Donors |
| Acknowledgement: | Authors thank Corteva Agriscience (Johnston, IA) for providing vectors RV013065, RV009361, RV008586, and A. tumefaciens strain LBA4404 THY- harboring the helper plasmid PHP71539. Requests for Corteva Agriscience materials, including Agrobacterium strain LBA4404 (THY_), genetic elements and/or plasmids, should be directed to William Gordon-Kamm, with completion of requisite Corteva Material Transfer Agreement and stewardship standards before the release of materials. SK acknowledges the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, for her DBT fellowship funding (DBT/2017/ICRISAT/973). |
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