TY - JOUR

T1 - First genome edited poinsettias

T2 - targeted mutagenesis of flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase using CRISPR/Cas9 results in a colour shift

AU - Nitarska, Daria

AU - Boehm, Robert

AU - Debener, Thomas

AU - Lucaciu, Rares Calin

AU - Halbwirth, Heidi

N1 - Funding Information: Open access funding provided by TU Wien (TUW). This project gratefully received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675657 Flower Power and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) P32901–B. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.

PY - 2021/10

Y1 - 2021/10

N2 - The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a remarkably promising tool for targeted gene mutagenesis, and becoming ever more popular for modification of ornamental plants. In this study we performed the knockout of flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′H) with application of CRISPR/Cas9 in the red flowering poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) cultivar ‘Christmas Eve’, in order to obtain plants with orange bract colour, which accumulate prevalently pelargonidin. F3′H is an enzyme that is necessary for formation of cyanidin type anthocyanins, which are responsible for the red colour of poinsettia bracts. Even though F3′H was not completely inactivated, the bract colour of transgenic plants changed from vivid red (RHS 45B) to vivid reddish orange (RHS 33A), and cyanidin levels decreased significantly compared with the wild type. In the genetically modified plants, an increased ratio of pelargonidin to cyanidin was observed. By cloning and expression of mutated proteins, the lack of F3′H activity was confirmed. This confirms that a loss of function mutation in the poinsettia F3′H gene is sufficient for obtaining poinsettia with orange bract colour. This is the first report of successful use of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome editing in poinsettia.

AB - The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a remarkably promising tool for targeted gene mutagenesis, and becoming ever more popular for modification of ornamental plants. In this study we performed the knockout of flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′H) with application of CRISPR/Cas9 in the red flowering poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) cultivar ‘Christmas Eve’, in order to obtain plants with orange bract colour, which accumulate prevalently pelargonidin. F3′H is an enzyme that is necessary for formation of cyanidin type anthocyanins, which are responsible for the red colour of poinsettia bracts. Even though F3′H was not completely inactivated, the bract colour of transgenic plants changed from vivid red (RHS 45B) to vivid reddish orange (RHS 33A), and cyanidin levels decreased significantly compared with the wild type. In the genetically modified plants, an increased ratio of pelargonidin to cyanidin was observed. By cloning and expression of mutated proteins, the lack of F3′H activity was confirmed. This confirms that a loss of function mutation in the poinsettia F3′H gene is sufficient for obtaining poinsettia with orange bract colour. This is the first report of successful use of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome editing in poinsettia.

KW - Breeding

KW - Euphorbia pulcherrima

KW - Orange bract colour

KW - Pelargonidin

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106499439&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11240-021-02103-5

DO - 10.1007/s11240-021-02103-5

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85106499439

VL - 147

SP - 49

EP - 60

JO - Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture

JF - Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture

SN - 0167-6857

IS - 1

ER -