CRISPR-Cas9 Used to Confer Sulfamethoxazole Resistance in Arabidopsis

A research team at Chonnam National University (CNU) used CRISPR-Cas9 to confer herbicide resistance in Arabidopsis by targeting the 5-oxoprolinase 1 (OXP1) gene. The results are published in Plant Biotechnology Reports.

Most of the herbicide tolerant crops developed using gene editing techniques have adopted site-specific mutations of endogenous genes. In the CNU study, the researchers aimed to confer sulfamethoxazole (Smex) herbicide resistance through insertion and deletion mutations using CRISPR-Cas9 editing of the OXP1 gene in Arabidopsis. Results showed that the mutants have reduced sensitivity to Smex. Furthermore, OXP1-edited plants were successfully obtained by screening the transgenic plants on Smex-containing media, implying the potential use of OXP1 as a marker for plant gene editing. The oxp1/CRISPR plants also exhibited tolerance to heavy metals, such as cadmium, and another sulfonamide compound, amisulbrom.

Based on the findings, the authors concluded that generating insertion-deletion mutations can be a potential technique to confer herbicide resistance in plants.