Biotech Updates

TALENs-mediated Editing in Potato via Agroinfiltration

February 14, 2018

A rapid test and an effective delivery system for introducing TALENs to plants are critical for successful target mutation. TALENs have usually been tested in protoplasts or introduced to plants with viral vectors. However, plant regeneration from protoplast culture can be unreliable. Viral vectors are not always available, and plants edited by these vectors require virus elimination.

Jin Ma from the Fredericton Research and Development Centre in Canada used a non-viral, Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression approach, to serve as both a rapid test and an effective delivery of TALENs into two vegetatively propagated potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivars. Two TALENs were expressed to target two genes, one for a starch branching enzyme, and one for an acid invertase, into leaves of potato plants via agroinfiltration.

The infiltrated leaf DNA was analyzed and revealed that the two TALENs successfully agroinfiltrated and induced mutations at both targeted loci.

For more information on this study, read the article in Plant Biotechnology Reports.