Versatile molecular tools enabling customizable DNA methylation editing in plants [BiSulfite-seq]
Tools to edit DNA methylation in a targeted manner are vital for clarifying the causal relationships between DNA methylation and its function, as well as for plant breeding and gene therapy; non-specific tools that induce genome-wide DNA methylation changes are valuable for the creation of novel epialleles and performing large-scale screens. Here, by constructing dCas9 fusions to a panel of effectors and cofactors, we uncovered a range of tools for editing DNA methylation, including five tools for DNA methylation and six tools for DNA demethylation. Our tools show diversity of performance in terms of specificity and efficiency, offering either the capacity to target editing DNA methylation or the ability to edit DNA methylation at the genome-wide level. Remarkably, DNA methylation edited by these tools was inherited in the absence of transgene. These versatile tools pave the way for diverse applications in DNA methylation editing and hold promise for advancing plant epigenetic breeding. Overall design: 127 WGBS