Engineering disease-resistant plants with alternative translation efficiency by switching uORF types through CRISPR  

作　　者：Jingjing Tian Zhijuan Tang Ruixia Niu Yulu Zhou Dan Yang Dan Chen Ming Luo Rui Mou Meng Yuan Guoyong Xu 

机构地区：[1]National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement,National Centre of Plant Gene Research(Wuhan),Huazhong Agricultural University,Wuhan 430070,China [2]State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice,Institute for Advanced Studies(IAS),Wuhan University,Wuhan 430072,China [3]Hubei Hongshan Laboratory,Wuhan 430070,China

出　　处：《Science China(Life Sciences)》2024年第8期1715-1726,共12页中国科学（生命科学英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2023ZD04073);the Major Project of Hubei Hongshan Laboratory(2022hszd016);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32070284,32172421);the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province(2022BFE003);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2662023PY006).

摘　　要：Engineering disease-resistant plants can be a powerful solution to the issue of food security.However,it requires addressing two fundamental questions:what genes to express and how to control their expressions.To find a solution,we screen CRISPR-edited upstream open reading frame(uORF)variants in rice,aiming to optimize translational control of disease-related genes.By switching uORF types of the 5′-leader from Arabidopsis TBF1,we modulate the ribosome accessibility to the downstream firefly luciferase.We assume that by switching uORF types using CRISPR,we could generate uORF variants with alternative translation efficiency(CRISPR-aTrE-uORF).These variants,capable of boosting translation for resistance-associated genes and dampening it for susceptible ones,can help pinpoint previously unidentified genes with optimal expression levels.To test the assumption,we screened edited uORF variants and found that enhanced translational suppression of the plastic glutamine synthetase 2 can provide broad-spectrum disease resistance in rice with minimal fitness costs.This strategy,which involves modifying uORFs from none to some,or from some to none or different ones,demonstrates how translational agriculture can speed up the development of disease-resistant crops.This is vital for tackling the food security challenges we face due to growing populations and changing climates.

关 键 词：disease-resistant plants broad-spectrum disease resistance UORF uORF types uORF variants CRISPR 

分 类 号：Q943.2[生物学—植物学]