Method for producing herbicide-resistant plants by base editing of plant chloroplast DNA encoding d1 protein

Abstract

The invention provides a method for producing herbicide-resistant plants by expressing, in a plant of interest or a part thereof, a base editing composition or a base editor that expresses the activity of modifying adenine (A) bases to guanine (G) bases and / or modifying cytosine (C) bases to thymine (T) bases in plant chloroplast-DNA encoded D1 protein, and by growing or culturing the plant or the part thereof. The herbicide is preferably a triazine-based herbicide and is, more preferably, atrazine. The herbicide-resistant plants has the D1 protein in which a serine residue is mutated to glycine or an alanine residue is mutated to valine, wherein the serine residue corresponds to the 264th serine residue of the D1 protein of Arabidopsis thaliana, and the alanine residue corresponds to the 251st alanine residue of the D1 protein of Arabidopsis thaliana. The base editing composition or the base editor comprises one or more fusion proteins, wherein the one or more fusion proteins each independently comprises a DNA-binding protein, and can comprise, as an enzyme protein, at least one from among a cytosine deaminase, an adenine deaminase and a nickase. The plant produced through the method is the first genetically modified plant in which, in the D1 protein of plant chloroplasts, a 5'-AGT-3' DNA sequence encoding the serine residue (the serine residue corresponding to the 264th serine residue of the D1 protein of Arabidopsis thaliana) is modified to 5'-GGT-3' encoding glycine or the 5'-GCT-3' DNA sequence encoding the alanine residue is modified to 5'-GTT-3' encoding valine. The present invention provides the genetically modified plant or the part thereof, and a progeny or seed obtained therefrom, and also provides a method for controlling weeds by applying herbicides in the vicinity of such plants.

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