skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Epigenetic Footprints of CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in Plants

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Plant Science
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Plant Sciences
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Plant Sciences, and Dept. of Food Science
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

CRISPR/Cas9 has been widely applied to various plant species accelerating the pace of plant genome editing and precision breeding in crops. Unintended effects beyond off-target nucleotide mutations are still somewhat unexplored. We investigated the degree and patterns of epigenetic changes after gene editing. We examined changes in DNA methylation in genome-edited promoters of naturally hypermethylated genes (AT1G72350 and AT1G09970) and hypomethylated genes (AT3G17320 and AT5G28770) from Arabidopsis. Transgenic plants were developed via Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip transformation. Homozygous edited lines were selected from segregated T2 plants by an in vitro digestion assay using ribonucleoprotein complex. Bisulfite sequencing comparisons were made between paired groups of edited and non-edited plants to identify changes in DNA methylation of the targeted loci. We found that directed mutagenesis via CRISPR/Cas9 resulted in no unintended morphological or epigenetic alterations. Phenotypes of wild-type, transgenic empty vector, and transgenic edited plants were similar. Epigenetic profiles revealed that methylation patterns of promoter regions flanking target sequences were identical among wild-type, transgenic empty vector, and transgenic edited plants. There was no effect of mutation type on epigenetic status. We also evaluated off-target mutagenesis effects in the edited plants. Potential off-target sites containing up to 4-bp mismatch of each target were sequenced. No off-target mutations were detected in candidate sites. Our results showed that CRISPR/Cas9 did not leave an epigenetic footprint on either the immediate gene-edited DNA and flanking DNA or introduce off-target mutations.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1606824
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 10, Issue NA; ISSN 1664-462X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (48)

DNA Methylation and the Evolution of Developmental Complexity in Plants journal October 2018
Off-target Effects in CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Genome Engineering journal January 2015
Epigenetic Regulation of Juvenile-to-Adult Transition in Plants journal July 2018
Erratum: Corrigendum: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated efficient and heritable targeted mutagenesis in tomato plants in the first and later generations journal December 2017
Dynamic DNA Methylation in Plant Growth and Development journal July 2018
Competition between DNA methylation and transcription factors determines binding of NRF1 journal December 2015
Role of DNA methylation in imprinting disorders: an updated review journal March 2017
Multigeneration analysis reveals the inheritance, specificity, and patterns of CRISPR/Cas-induced gene modifications in Arabidopsis journal February 2014
Towards CRISPR/Cas crops - bringing together genomics and genome editing journal August 2017
Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation in Soybean journal November 2013
Gene body DNA methylation in plants journal April 2017
ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR/Cas-based methods for genome engineering journal July 2013
Improving CRISPR Genome Editing by Engineering Guide RNAs journal August 2019
Transcription factors as readers and effectors of DNA methylation journal August 2016
Genotyping genome-edited mutations in plants using CRISPR ribonucleoprotein complexes journal May 2018
Putting DNA methylation in context: from genomes to gene expression in plants journal January 2017
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana using the floral dip method journal June 2006
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis of GmFT2a delays flowering time in soya bean journal June 2017
Analysis of the Arabidopsis superman allelic series and the interactions with other genes demonstrate developmental robustness and joint specification of male–female boundary, flower meristem termination and carpel compartmentalization journal April 2016
Critical roles of DNA demethylation in the activation of ripening-induced genes and inhibition of ripening-repressed genes in tomato fruit journal May 2017
Phytopathogen-induced changes to plant methylomes journal July 2017
Genome editing of the disease susceptibility gene CsLOB1 in citrus confers resistance to citrus canker journal January 2017
With a free pass, CRISPR-edited plants reach market in record time journal January 2018
The CRISPR/Cas9 system produces specific and homozygous targeted gene editing in rice in one generation journal May 2014
CRISPR for Crop Improvement: An Update Review journal July 2018
Advanced Methylome Analysis after Bisulfite Deep Sequencing: An Example in Arabidopsis journal July 2012
Strategies for analyzing bisulfite sequencing data journal November 2017
Dynamics and function of DNA methylation in plants journal May 2018
Editorial: Epigenetic Modifications Associated with Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants: An Implication for Understanding Plant Evolution journal November 2017
Risk associated with off-target plant genome editing and methods for its limitation journal November 2017
CRISPR-Cas9 Targeted Mutagenesis Leads to Simultaneous Modification of Different Homoeologous Gene Copies in Polyploid Oilseed Rape ( Brassica napus ) journal April 2017
Cyst Nematode Parasitism Induces Dynamic Changes in the Root Epigenome journal March 2017
Knockout of OsNramp5 using the CRISPR/Cas9 system produces low Cd-accumulating indica rice without compromising yield journal October 2017
Genome-wide High-Resolution Mapping and Functional Analysis of DNA Methylation in Arabidopsis journal September 2006
GUIDE-seq enables genome-wide profiling of off-target cleavage by CRISPR-Cas nucleases journal December 2014
The CRISPR/Cas9 system and its applications in crop genome editing journal January 2019
High-frequency off-target mutagenesis induced by CRISPR-Cas nucleases in human cells journal June 2013
Accurate sodium bisulfite sequencing in plants journal January 2010
Rapid improvement of domestication traits in an orphan crop by genome editing journal October 2018
A CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit for multiplex genome editing in plants journal November 2014
Evaluation of off-target and on-target scoring algorithms and integration into the guide RNA selection tool CRISPOR journal July 2016
Genetic Screens in Human Cells Using the CRISPR-Cas9 System journal December 2013
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis in Nicotiana tabacum journal October 2014
Targeted DNA Methylation Analysis by Next-generation Sequencing journal January 2015
CRISPR plants now subject to tough GM laws in European Union journal July 2018
Characterization of oleosin genes from forage sorghum in Arabidopsis and yeast reveals their role in storage lipid stability journal October 2021
Walking a Fine Germline: Synthesizing Public Opinion and Legal Precedent to Develop Policy Recommendations for Heritable Gene-Editing journal April 2022
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated efficient and heritable targeted mutagenesis in tomato plants in the first and later generations journal April 2016

Similar Records

Targeting specificity of APOBEC-based cytosine base editor in human iPSCs determined by whole genome sequencing
Journal Article · Mon Nov 25 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1606824

Radiation-Induced Epigenetic Alterations after Low and High LET Irradiations
Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Mutation Research. Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis, 707(1-2):24-33 · OSTI ID:1606824

Optimization of multiplexed CRISPR/Cas9 system for highly efficient genome editing in Setaria viridis
Journal Article · Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · The Plant Journal · OSTI ID:1606824