Biotech Updates

Scientists Assess Use of Meganucleases in Tomato and Oilseed Rape

November 10, 2021

Researchers from France evaluated the use of two meganucleases, I-SceI and a customized meganuclease, in tomato and oilseed rape. Their findings are published in Transgenic Research.

Meganucleases are molecular scissors that can cause changes in the DNA. Because of this function, they are used in editing the genomes of plants. To assess their efficacy in tomato and oilseed rape, the researchers employed different strategies.

First, they used a reporter construct GFFP with the target sequences which showed that both meganucleases can generate double-strand break and HDR mediated recombination in a reporter gene. They also observed that I-SceI have a higher DSB efficiency than the customized meganuclease. DSB efficiency reached up to 62.5% in tomato and 44.8% in oilseed rape.

For the second strategy, the researchers introduced the same exogenous landing pad for tomato and oilseed rape. I-SceI turned out to be less efficient, while the customized meganuclease generated the excision of an exogenous transgene present in tomato.

Read more results in Transgenic Research.


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