2023-10-20 20:45:25
Scientists have developed a technology that allows plant genes to be inactivated, very precisely and for a long time, through a single application of a spray. This contains a harmless virus that releases very small RNA molecules designed in the laboratory to silence genes of interest on demand. In this way, the inactivation of a gene is achieved without modifying the plant’s genome, a non-transgenic method that favors its implementation on the market. This technology could be used to increase productivity, protect crops from viruses and improve their ability to adapt to environmental changes.
This technology is the work of a research group from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP), a joint center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the UPV (Universitat Politècnica de València).
The technology developed by the team of Alberto Carbonell and Adriana E Cisneros, both from IBMCP, allows plant genes to be inactivated precisely and continuously thanks to the aforementioned very small RNA molecules, called artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs). AmiRNAs are nucleic acids like DNA but much smaller in size, which are computationally designed so that they are highly specific and do not accidentally inactivate genes that are not intended to be acted upon.
The small artificial RNAs are derived from larger precursor molecules, whose size has been optimized in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a herbaceous plant widely used in research in areas such as molecular biology and plant genetics. The IBMCP team applies a spray to the plant that contains a harmless virus that multiplies in its body and releases these very small molecules of artificial RNA necessary to inactivate the desired gene.
“On the one hand, we have managed to considerably reduce the size of the artificial microRNA precursor molecules without affecting their activity. We have also proven that we can inactivate plant genes by spraying plant extracts that include harmless viral vectors that produce amiRNAs from minimal precursor molecules,” explains Alberto Carbonell.
Applied to the plant under study, Nicotiana benthamiana (a solanaceous plant from the tomato family widely used as a model species in research on the relationships between pathogen and plant), this technology allows plant genes to be inactivated on demand using artificial microRNAs “in a highly specific and non-transgenic, since it is not necessary to integrate any gene into the plant genome,” says the researcher. This would facilitate its application in the European Union, where Genetically Modified Organisms are strongly regulated. This interest has motivated the application for a European patent to protect the technology developed by the IBMCP, shared ownership between the CSIC and the UPV.
By spraying a harmless virus, the new technique is capable of inactivating a plant’s genes without modifying its DNA. (Photo: UPV)
Increase the productivity of crops and ‘vaccinate’ them against viruses
Another advantage of this technology is that “a single spray is sufficient to infect the plant with the harmless virus and produce the amiRNAs in the infected tissues. Therefore, this methodology does not require multiple treatments, which would lower application costs,” summarizes Carbonell. Thus, for example, the researchers inactivated the genes of the chlorophyll biosynthesis pathway with a single spray, inducing yellowing of infected tissues.
According to the CSIC researcher, a treatment based on this method applied to crops of agronomic interest “would allow the selective inactivation of the expression of their genes, which could be used to increase the productivity of the crop and improve its capacity to adapt to environmental changes. ”. In addition, these treatments could be used to protect crops against different pathogens, such as viruses. “This would constitute a new generation of vaccines in which a plant extract would be used to infect the crop with a harmless virus that would produce specific artificial microRNAs against a pathogenic virus for its inactivation, achieving immunization of the crop.”
The study is titled “Transgene-free, virus-based gene silencing in plants by artificial microRNAs derived from minimal precursors.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nucleic Acids Research. (Source: UPV)
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