Controlling Early Stages of DNA Repair for Gene-targeting Enhancement in Plants
Authors: Wilson Thomas E. , Levy Avraham A. , Tzfira Tzvi 
Published: March 2022

Gene targeting (GT) is a much needed technology as a tool for plant research and for the precise engineering of crop species. Recent advances in this field have shown that the presence of a DNA double-strand break (DSB) in a genomic locus is critical for the integration of an exogenous DNA molecule introduced into this locus. This integration can occur via either non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) into the break or homologous recombination (HR) between the broken genomic DNA and the introduced vector. A bottleneck for DNA integration via HR is the machinery responsible for homology search and strand invasion. Important proteins in this pathway are Rad51, Rad52 and Rad54.   We proposed to combine our respective expertise: on the US side, in the design of zincfinger nucleases (ZFNs) for the induction of DNA DSBs at any desired genomic locus and in the integration of DNA molecules via NHEJ; and on the Israeli side in the HR events, downstream of the DSB, that lead to homology search and strand invasion. We sought to test three major pathways of targeted DNA integration: (i) integration by NHEJ into DSBs induced at desired sites by specially designed ZFNs; (ii) integration into DSBs induced at desired sites combined with the use of Rad51, Rad52 and Rad54 proteins to maximize the chances for efficient and precise HR-mediated vector insertion; (iii) stimulation of HR by Rad51, Rad52 and Rad54 in the absence of DSB induction. We also proposed to study the formation of dsT-DNA molecules during the transformation of plant cells. dsT-DNA molecules are an important substrate for HR and NHEJ-mediatedGT, yet the mode of their formation from single stranded T-DNA molecules is still obscure. In addition we sought to develop a system for assembly of multi-transgene binary vectors by using ZFNs. The latter may facilitate the production of binary vectors that may be ready for genome editing in transgenic plants. ZFNs were proposed for the induction of DSBs in genomic targets, namely, the FtsH2 gene whose loss of function can easily be identified in somatic tissues as white sectors, and the Cruciferin locus whose targeting by a GFP or RFP reporter vectors can give rise to fluorescent seeds. ZFNs were also proposed for the induction of DSBs in artificial targets and for assembly of multi-gene vectors. We finally sought to address two important cell types in terms of relevance to plant transformation, namely GT of germinal (egg) cells by floral dipping, and GT in somatic cells by root and leave transformation. To be successful, we made use of novel optimized expression cassettes that enable coexpression of all of the genes of interest (ZFNs and Rad genes) in the right tissues (egg or root cells) at the right time, namely when the GT vector is delivered into the cells. Methods were proposed for investigating the complementation of T-strands to dsDNA molecules in living plant cells.   During the course of this research, we (i) designed, assembled and tested, in vitro, a pair of new ZFNs capable of targeting the Cruciferin gene, (ii) produced transgenic plants which expresses for ZFN monomers for targeting of the FtsH2 gene. Expression of these enzymes is controlled by constitutive or heat shock induced promoters, (iii) produced a large population of transgenic Arabidopsis lines in which mutated mGUS gene was incorporated into different genomic locations, (iv) designed a system for egg-cell-specific expression of ZFNs and RAD genes and initiate GT experiments, (v) demonstrated that we can achieve NHEJ-mediated gene replacement in plant cells (vi) developed a system for ZFN and homing endonuclease-mediated assembly of multigene plant transformation vectors and (vii) explored the mechanism of dsTDNA formation in plant cells.   This work has substantially advanced our understanding of the mechanisms of DNA integration into plants and furthered the development of important new tools for GT in plants.