Genome editing of pollen using CRISPR/Cas9 (NWO-ENW XS)
If we wish to address the world’s increasing demand for food, feed and biomass while respecting the environment and coping with ever changing climate conditions, we need a leap forward in the technology for crop improvement, and CRISPR/Cas9 offers an unprecedented opportunity to enable this.
The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology is a versatile tool for targeted mutagenesis in plants, useful to determine gene functions and rapidly generate new crop varieties. However, it is possible to obtain CRISPR/Cas9-modified plants only for a handful of species. This represents a major bottleneck in the widespread application of CRISPR/Cas9 in plants. This project aims to develop methods for direct genome editing in pollen. This would overcome this challenge, because the edited pollen could be used to generate genome-edited plants by conventional fertilisation.
Timeline: 01/06/2020 - 01/07/2021
Contact: Luisa Bortesi
Objective
The project has two key objectives:
- Identify chemical and/or physical treatments that enable RNP uptake into pollen grains while preserving their vitality and capacity for fertilisation
- Determine the efficiency of genome editing in pollen by comparing different treatments for the introduction of RNPs