Functional validation of cas9/guiderna constructs for site‐directed mutagenesis of triticale aba8′oh1 loci

Abstract

Cas endonuclease‐mediated genome editing provides a long‐awaited molecular biological approach to the modification of predefined genomic target sequences in living organisms. Although cas9/guide (g)RNA constructs are straightforward to assemble and can be customized to target virtually any site in the plant genome, the implementation of this technology can be cumbersome, especially in species like triticale that are difficult to transform, for which only limited genome information is available and/or which carry comparatively large genomes. To cope with these challenges, we have pre‐validated cas9/gRNA constructs (1) by frameshift restitution of a reporter gene co‐introduced by ballistic DNA transfer to barley epidermis cells, and (2) via transfection in triticale protoplasts followed by either a T7E1‐based cleavage assay or by deep‐sequencing of target-specific PCR amplicons. For exemplification, we addressed the triticale ABA 8′‐HYDROXYLASE 1 gene, one of the putative determinants of pre‐harvest sprouting of grains. We further show that in-del induction frequency in triticale can be increased by TREX2 nuclease activity, which holds true for both well‐ and poorly performing gRNAs. The presented results constitute a sound basis for the targeted induction of heritable modifications in triticale genes.