title: Heritable site-specific mutagenesis using TALENs in maize.
abstract: Transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) technology has been utilized widely for targeted gene mutagenesis, especially for gene inactivation, in many organisms, including agriculturally important plants such as rice, wheat, tomato and barley. This report describes application of this technology to generate heritable genome modifications in maize. TALENs were employed to generate stable, heritable mutations at the maize glossy2 (gl2) locus. Transgenic lines containing mono- or di-allelic mutations were obtained from the maize genotype Hi-II at a frequency of about 10% (nine mutated events in 91 transgenic events). In addition, three of the novel alleles were tested for function in progeny seedlings, where they were able to confer the glossy phenotype. In a majority of the events, the integrated TALEN T-DNA segregated independently from the new loss of function alleles, producing mutated null-segregant progeny in T1 generation. Our results demonstrate that TALENs are an effective tool for genome mutagenesis in maize, empowering the discovery of gene function and the development of trait improvement.
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Si Nian
authors: SN
authors: Char
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Erica
authors: E
authors: Unger-Wallace
authors: Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Bronwyn
authors: B
authors: Frame
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Sarah A
authors: SA
authors: Briggs
authors: Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Marcy
authors: M
authors: Main
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Martin H
authors: MH
authors: Spalding
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Erik
authors: E
authors: Vollbrecht
authors: Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Kan
authors: K
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
authors: Bing
authors: B
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Glossy2; TAL effector nuclease; gene editing; maize; targeted mutagenesis