Generation of Herbicide-Resistant Soybean by Base Editing
Tao Wei,
Linjian Jiang,
Xiang You,
Pengyu Ma,
Zhen Xi,
Ning Ning Wang
Affiliations
Tao Wei
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Linjian Jiang
Key Laboratory of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, MOA, Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Xiang You
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Pengyu Ma
State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemical Biology, National Engineering Research Center of Pesticide, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Zhen Xi
State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemical Biology, National Engineering Research Center of Pesticide, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Ning Ning Wang
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Weeds cause the largest yield loss in soybean production. The development of herbicide-resistant soybean germplasm is of great significance for weed control and yield improvement. In this study, we used the cytosine base editor (BE3) to develop novel herbicide-resistant soybean. We have successfully introduced base substitutions in GmAHAS3 and GmAHAS4 and obtained a heritable transgene-free soybean with homozygous P180S mutation in GmAHAS4. The GmAHAS4 P180S mutants have apparent resistance to chlorsulfuron, flucarbazone-sodium, and flumetsulam. In particular, the resistance to chlorsulfuron was more than 100 times that of with wild type TL-1. The agronomic performance of the GmAHAS4 P180S mutants showed no significant differences to TL-1 under natural growth conditions. In addition, we developed allele-specific PCR markers for the GmAHAS4 P180S mutants, which can easily discriminate homozygous, heterozygous mutants, and wild-type plants. This study demonstrates a feasible and effective way to generate herbicide-resistant soybean by using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated base editing.
