Scientists from China Agricultural University engineered a barley stripe
mosaic virus (BSMV)-based guide RNA delivery system for targeted mutagenesis
in wheat and maize. The results are published in Molecular Plant Pathology.

BSMV$B!>(Bbased delivery of single gRNAs for CRISPR-Cas9-mediated targeted
mutagenesis was first used in Nicotiana benthamiana, a close relative of
tobacco. To test if this can also be applied to economically important
crops, the researchers transformed wheat and maize with Cas9 nuclease gene
and selected the wheat TaGASR7 and maize ZmTMS5 genes as targets to evaluate
the feasibility and efficiency of BSMV$B!>(Bmediated mutagenesis. Results showed
that targeted mutagenesis was successful for wheat and maize with
efficiencies reaching 78% and 48%, respectively.

Based on the results, BSMV$B!>(Bbased delivery of single gRNAs could be a useful
tool in economically important crops.

[onlinelibrary.wiley.com]