Obtaining commercial HLB-tolerant sweet orange varieties via CRISPR genome editing.

• Grant number: 24/17963-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Alves de Souza
• Grantee: Flavia de Moura Manoel Bento
• Host Institution: Instituto Agronômico (IAC). Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07045-3 - Biotechnological and genomic strategies for quality, productivity and sustainable management of citrus, coffee and sugar cane in the State of São Paulo, AP.NPOP

Abstract

Citriculture has been extremely affected by Huanglongbing (HLB), a disease caused by the ¿-proteobacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas). As all commercial species are susceptible to HLB, the development of tolerant commercial varieties has become the biggest challenge in citrus farming. The possibility of creating targeted mutations using CRISPR technology, promoting changes in certain responses of citrus trees when infected by CLas is a very interesting approach. Recently, transcriptomes that evaluated the global expression of genes in susceptible, tolerant and resistant genotypes after eight months of infection identified genes that may help explain the presence and absence of the characteristic symptoms of HLB in citrus genotypes and related genera. The application of CRISPR technology to the study of the citrus-HLB pathosystem will expand the gene x genotype association, the knowledge of mechanisms involved in the response to HLB and may also contribute to new strategies for searching for tolerance or resistance to be used in susceptible genotypes in addition to allow the development of new non-transgenic citrus varieties. (AU)