CRISPRing trees for a climate-friendly economy

Date:
October 6, 2020
Source:
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)
Summary:
Researchers have discovered a way to stably fine-tune the amount
of lignin in poplar by applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Lignin
is one of the main structural substances in plants and it makes
processing wood into, for example, paper difficult.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers led by prof. Wout Boerjan (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology) have discovered a way to stably finetune the amount of lignin
in poplar by applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Lignin is one of the main structural substances in plants and it makes processing wood into, for
example, paper difficult. This study is an important breakthrough in the development of wood resources for the production of paper with a lower
carbon footprint, biofuels, and other bio-based materials. Their work,
in collaboration with VIVES University College (Roeselare, Belgium)
and University of Wisconsin (USA) appears in Nature Communications.


========================================================================== Towards a bio-based economy Today's fossil-based economy results in a
net increase of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and is a major cause of
global climate change. To counter this, a shift towards a circular and bio-based economy is essential. Woody biomass can play a crucial role
in such a bio-based economy by serving as a renewable and carbon-neutral resource for the production of many chemicals. Unfortunately, the presence
of lignin hinders the processing of wood into bio-based products.

Prof. Wout Boerjan (VIB-UGent): "A few years ago, we performed a field
trial with poplars that were engineered to make wood containing less
lignin. Most plants showed large improvements in processing efficiency
for many possible applications. The downside, however, was that the
reduction in lignin accomplished with the technology we used then -- RNA interference -- was unstable and the trees grew less tall." New tools Undeterred, the researchers went looking for a solution. They employed
the recent CRISPR/Cas9 technology in poplar to lower the lignin amount
in a stable way, without causing a biomass yield penalty. In other words,
the trees grew just as well and as tall as those without genetic changes.

Dr. Barbara De Meester (VIB-UGent): "Poplar is a diploid species,
meaning every gene is present in two copies. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we
introduced specific changes in both copies of a gene that is crucial
for the biosynthesis of lignin. We inactivated one copy of the gene,
and only partially inactivated the other. The resulting poplar line had
a stable 10% reduction in lignin amount while it grew normally in the greenhouse. Wood from the engineered trees had an up to 41% increase in processing efficiency." Dr. Ruben Vanholme (VIB-UGent): "The mutations
that we have introduced through CRISPR/Cas9 are similar to those that spontaneously arise in nature. The advantage of the CRISPR/Cas9 method
is that the beneficial mutations can be directly introduced into the
DNA of highly productive tree varieties in only a fraction of the time
it would take by a classical breeding strategy." The applications of
this method are not only restricted to lignin but might also be useful
to engineer other traits in crops, providing a versatile new breeding
tool to improve agricultural productivity.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by VIB_(the_Flanders_Institute_for_Biotechnology). Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Barbara De Meester, Barbara Madariaga Caldero'n, Lisanne de Vries,
Jacob
Pollier, Geert Goeminne, Jan Van Doorsselaere, Mingjie Chen,
John Ralph, Ruben Vanholme, Wout Boerjan. Tailoring poplar lignin
without yield penalty by combining a null and haploinsufficient
CINNAMOYL-CoA REDUCTASE2 allele. Nature Communications, 2020; 11
(1) DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-020-18822-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201006114227.htm

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