Enhancing Transformation of South Korean Maize Cultivar with CRISPR

Pusan National University (PNU) researchers reported a maize transformation technology for domestic use in South Korea. Their findings are published in the Journal of Environmental Science International.

Maize is one of the top-produced crops globally, along with wheat and rice. With the advent of gene editing tools, new methods are being proposed to easily and rapidly breed new varieties. Transformation methods for the introduction of CRISPR-Cas9 constructs for gene editing into maize have been developed and utilized in several Western countries, but in South Korea, no local research institutes have reported on Hi-II A/B cultivars. Thus, PNU researchers established a maize transformation using the Hi-II A/B cultivar in South Korea.

The research team engineered guide RNAs to target the promoter region of the maize WUSCHEL1 (ZmWUS1) gene. This gene encodes a homeobox transcription factor essential for maintaining the shoot apical meristem (SAM) and influencing crop productivity. They successfully introduced a confirmed CRISPR-Cas9 construct containing these guide RNAs into maize using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Subsequent sequencing analysis verified gene editing at the targeted promoter region. Notably, one of the resulting ZmWUS1 promoter mutations exhibited abnormal ear development.

The results of the study contribute to breeding new maize varieties domestically and revitalizing molecular biology and molecular genetics research on maize.

Read the research article for more findings.