Method for obtaining glyphosate-resistant rice by site-directed nucleotide substitution

11767,536

15/752514

August 15, 2016

The present invention discloses a method for obtaining glyphosate-resistant rice by a site-directed nucleotide substitution, and also relates to a method capable of generating a site-directed nucleotide substitution and a fragment substitution. The method for obtaining a glyphosate-resistant plant provided by the present invention comprises the following steps: only substituting threonine (T) at position 8 of the amino acid sequence of a conserved region of endogenous EPSPS protein of a target plant with isoleucine (I), and substituting proline (P) at position 12 with serine (S) to obtain a plant, i.e., a glyphosate-resistant plant. The method provided by the present invention is of great significance in breeding new herbicide-resistant plant varieties. The present invention also discloses a method for utilizing a CRISPR-mediated NHEJ pathway to substitute a region between two gRNA sites by designing the two gRNA sites, thereby realizing a site-directed mutation of a target nucleotide and site-directed substitution of a fragment.

Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, CN)

Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, CN)

1. A method for substituting a target nucleotide for a desired nucleotide in a target gene of a target plant's genome, comprising the step of introducing the following into a cell or tissue of the target plant via gene gun transformation: a first genetic material, a second genetic material and a donor vector: the first genetic material is a circular DNA plasmid, a linear DNA fragment or an RNA transcribed in vitro capable of expressing a first CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease; the second genetic material is a circular DNA plasmid, a linear DNA fragment or an RNA transcribed in vitro capable of expressing a second CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease; wherein the first CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease is able to specifically cleave a first target fragment in the genome of the target plant and the donor vector; and wherein the second CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease is able to specifically cleave a second target fragment in the genome of the target plant and the donor vector, wherein the donor vector additionally comprises a mutation target sequence released by the cleavage of the donor vector by the first and second CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases; the mutation target sequence contains a DNA fragment sequence corresponding to a sequence in the genome of the target plant from the 5′ end of a first target fragment to the 3′ end of a second target fragment, which contains the desired nucleotide substitution; wherein the first target fragment is positioned in an intron region or a promoter region in the genome of the target plant upstream of the target nucleotide of the target gene in the genome of the target plant; wherein the second target fragment is positioned in an intron region or a 3′-UTR region in the genome of the target plant downstream of the target nucleotide of the target gene in the genome of the target plant, wherein the target nucleotide is located in an exon of the target gene, wherein the first genetic material, the second genetic material, and the donor vector are delivered simultaneously in a molar ratio of 1:1:2.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the cell is any cell that can be used as an introduction recipient and can be regenerated into a complete plant by tissue culture; or the tissue is any cell that can be used as an introduction recipient and can be regenerated into a complete plant by tissue culture.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said plant is Arabidopsis ; said target gene is Atsnc1(At4g16890) of SEQ ID NO: 9; said first sequence specific nuclease comprises a sgDNA corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 12; said second sequence specific nuclease comprises a sgDNA corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 13; said mutation target sequence is set forth in SEQ ID NO.14; substitution of the target nucleotide results in the replacement of Exon 3 of Atsnc1 of SEQ ID NO: 10 with SEQ ID NO: 11, and thus conferring on the plant the resistance against Pseudomonas syringae pv maculicola ES4326 and Peronospora parasitica Noco2.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said target plant is rice or Arabidopsis.

5. A method for obtaining a glyphosate-resistant plant, the method comprising: substituting threonine (T) at position 8 of the amino acid sequence of a conserved region of endogenous EPSPS protein of a target plant with isoleucine (I), and substituting proline (P) at position 12 with serine (S) to obtain a glyphosate-resistant plant, wherein the conserved region of the endogenous EPSPS protein of the target plant comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein the substituting step comprises introducing the following into a cell or tissue of the target plant via gene gun transformation: a first genetic material, a second genetic material and a donor vector: the first genetic material is a circular DNA plasmid, a linear DNA fragment or an RNA transcribed in vitro capable of expressing a first CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease; the second genetic material is a circular DNA plasmid, a linear DNA fragment or an RNA transcribed in vitro capable of expressing a second CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease; wherein the first CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease is able to specifically cleave a first target fragment in the genome of the target plant and the donor vector; and wherein the second CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease is able to specifically cleave a second target fragment in the genome of the target plant and the donor vector, wherein the donor vector additionally comprises a mutation target sequence released by the cleavage of the donor vector by the first and second CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases; the mutation target sequence contains a DNA fragment sequence corresponding to a sequence in the genome of the target plant from the 5′ end of a first target fragment to the 3′ end of a second target fragment, which contains the desired nucleotide substitution; wherein the first target fragment is positioned in an intron region or a promoter region in the genome of the target plant upstream of the nucleotide sequence encoding the amino acid sequence of the conserved region of the endogenous EPSPS protein, wherein the second target fragment is positioned in an intron region or a 3′-UTR region in the genome of the target plant downstream of a nucleotide sequence encoding the amino acid sequence of the conserved region of the endogenous EPSPS protein, wherein the nucleotide substitution is a mutation by which threonine (T) at position 8 of the amino acid sequence of the conserved region of endogenous EPSPS protein of a target plant is substituted with isoleucine (I), and proline (P) at position 12 is substituted with serine (S), and wherein the first genetic material, the second genetic material, and the donor vector are delivered simultaneously in a molar ratio of 1:1:2.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein (a) the first target fragment is positioned in an intron region in the genome of the target plant upstream of the first intron region comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding the amino acid sequence of the conserved region of the endogenous EPSPS protein; wherein the nucleotide sequence of the first intron region comprises the nucleotides from position 1 to 704 of SEQ ID NO: 3; wherein both the first sequence specific nuclease and the second sequence specific nuclease are CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases, and wherein the first target fragment is a fragment complying with the formula of 5′-N X -NGG-3′ or 5′-CCN-N X -3′ within the nucleotide sequence corresponds to position 1-704 of SEQ ID NO: 3; wherein N represents any one of A, G, C, and T; 14≤X≤30 and X is an integer; and wherein N X represents X consecutive nucleotides; and/or (b) the second target fragment is positioned in an intron region in the genome of the target plant downstream of the second intron region comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding the amino acid sequence of the conserved region of the endogenous EPSPS protein, wherein the nucleotide sequence of the second intron region comprises the nucleotides from position 950 to 1030 of SEQ ID No. 3, and wherein both the first and second sequence specific nucleases are CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases, and wherein the second target fragment is a fragment comprising a sequence of the formula of 5′-N X -NGG-3′ or 5′-CCN-N X -3′ within a nucleotide sequence comprised of the nucleotides from position 950 to 1030 of SEQ ID NO: 3, wherein N represents any one of A, G, C, and T; 14≤X≤30 and X is an integer; and N X represents X consecutive nucleotides.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the nucleotide sequence of the first target fragment is SEQ ID NO: 4; and wherein the nucleotide sequence of the second target fragment is SEQ ID NO: 5.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the first genetic material is a recombinant plasmid obtained by substituting the fragment between two restriction enzymes BsaI of the pHUN411 vector with a DNA fragment corresponds to position 1-20 of SEQ ID NO: 4, wherein the second genetic material is a recombinant plasmid obtained by substituting the fragment between two restriction enzymes BsaI of the pHUN411 vector with a DNA fragment corresponds to position 1-20 of SEQ ID NO: 5, or wherein the nucleotide sequence of the mutation target sequence carried by the donor vector is set forth in SEQ ID NO: 6.

9. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the cell is any cell that can be used as an introduction recipient and can be regenerated into a complete plant by tissue culture, and wherein the tissue is any tissue that can be used as an introduction recipient and can be regenerated into a complete plant by tissue culture.

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