Authors
Johni Debbarma, Banashree Saikia, Dhanawantari L Singha, Debajit Das, Ajay Kumar Keot, Jitendra Maharana, Natarajan Velmurugan, Kallare P Arunkumar, Palakolanu Sudhakar Reddy, Channakeshavaiah Chikkaputtaiah
Publication date
2023/2/14
Journal
Genes
Volume
14
Issue
2
Pages
488
Publisher
MDPI
Description
Fusarium wilt is a major devastating fungal disease of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol) which reduces the yield and production. Xylem sap protein 10 (XSP10) and Salicylic acid methyl transferase (SlSAMT) are two putative negative regulatory genes associated with Fusarium wilt of tomato. Fusarium wilt tolerance in tomato can be developed by targeting these susceptible (S) genes. Due to its efficiency, high target specificity, and versatility, CRISPR/Cas9 has emerged as one of the most promising techniques for knocking out disease susceptibility genes in a variety of model and agricultural plants to increase tolerance/resistance to various plant diseases in recent years. Though alternative methods, like RNAi, have been attempted to knock down these two S genes in order to confer resistance in tomato against Fusarium wilt, there has been no report of employing the CRISPR/Cas9 system for this specific intent. In this study, we provide a comprehensive downstream analysis of the two S genes via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of single (XSP10 and SlSAMT individually) and dual-gene (XSP10 and SlSAMT simultaneously). Prior to directly advancing on to the generation of stable lines, the editing efficacy of the sgRNA-Cas9 complex was first validated using single cell (protoplast) transformation. In the transient leaf disc assay, the dual-gene editing showed strong phenotypic tolerance to Fusarium wilt disease with INDEL mutations than single-gene editing. In stable genetic transformation of tomato at the GE1 generation, dual-gene CRISPR transformants of XSP10 and SlSAMT primarily …
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