Yozo Nagira

An in planta biolistic method for stable wheat transformation.

The currently favoured method for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) transformation is inapplicable to many elite cultivars because it requires callus culture and regeneration. Here, we developed a simple, reproducible, in planta wheat transformation method using biolistic DNA delivery without callus culture or regeneration. Shoot apical meristems (SAMs) grown from dry imbibed seeds were exposed under a microscope and subjected to bombardment with different-sized gold particles coated with the GFP gene construct, introducing DNA into the L2 cell layer. Bombarded embryos were grown to mature, stably transformed T0 plants and integration of the GFP gene into the genome was determined at the fifth leaf. Use of 0.6-µm particles and 1350-psi pressure resulted in dramatically increased maximum ratios of transient GFP expression in SAMs and transgene integration in the fifth leaf. The transgene was integrated into the germ cells of 62% of transformants, and was therefore inherited in the next generation. We successfully transformed the model wheat cultivar ‘Fielder’, as well as the recalcitrant Japanese elite cultivar ‘Haruyokoi’. Our method could potentially be used to generate stable transgenic lines for a wide range of commercial wheat cultivars.

Biolistic-delivery-based transient CRISPR/Cas9 expression enables in planta genome editing in wheat

The current application of genome editing to crop plants is limited to cultivars that are amenable to in vitro culture and regeneration. Here, we report an in planta genome-editing which does not require callus culture and regeneration. Shoot apical meristems (SAMs) contain a subepidermal cell layer, L2, from which germ cells later develop during floral organogenesis. The biolistic delivery of gold particles coated with plasmids expressing CRISPR/Cas9 components designed to target TaGASR7 were bombarded into SAM-exposed embryos of imbibed seeds. Bombarded embryos showing transient GFP expression within SAM were selected and grown into adult plants. Mutations in the target gene were assessed in fifth-leaf tissue by cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence analysis. Eleven (5.2%) of the 210 bombarded plants carried mutant alleles, and the mutations of three (1.4%) of these were inherited in the next generation. Genotype analysis of T1 plants identified plants homozygous for the three homeologous genes, which were all derived from one T0 plant. These plants showed no detectable integration of the Cas9 and guide RNA genes, indicating that transient expression of CRISPR/Cas9 introduced the mutations. Together, our current method can be used to achieve in planta genome editing in wheat using CRISPR/Cas9 and suggests possible applications to other recalcitrant plant species and variations.

Author Correction: An in planta biolistic method for stable wheat transformation

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.