Tomato SIGRXC9 Gene Editing for Chilling Stress Tolerance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Low-temperature stress severely affects the quality and yield of tomato crops, with existing technologies lacking a deep understanding of the role of glutaredoxin SIGRXC9 in chilling stress response and growth regulation, necessitating a genetic engineering solution to enhance cold tolerance and address growth abnormalities.
Innovation Solution
The SIGRXC9 gene is cloned and edited using CRISPR/Cas9 technology to inhibit or promote its expression, resulting in plants with enhanced cold tolerance or sensitivity to chilling stress, enabling the development of cold-tolerant and dwarfed varieties through targeted gene knockout and introduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If CRISPR-Cas9 is used to knock out the SIGRXC9 gene to enhance cold tolerance, then cold resistance is improved, but plant growth and development are affected resulting in dwarfed phenotype
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by specifically targeting and knocking out only the SIGRXC9 gene among the tomato glutaredoxin gene family, rather than affecting all GRX genes. This localized genetic modification allows the plant to maintain normal growth functions provided by other GRX genes while gaining cold tolerance through the specific loss of SIGRXC9 function, thereby resolving the contradiction between improved cold resistance and maintained productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses gene knockout (removal of function) rather than gene overexpression to achieve cold tolerance. This inverted approach - removing a protective gene function to enhance stress resistance - counterintuitively resolves the contradiction by eliminating the gene's role in cold sensitivity while preserving its minimal impact on overall plant growth through compensatory mechanisms
2Reliability
If SIGRXC9 gene expression is inhibited to improve cold tolerance, then stress resistance is enhanced, but yield and quality of tomato crops deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the expression parameter of SIGRXC9 from normal levels to complete knockout, creating a specific parameter state that confers cold tolerance. The patent then applies further parameter changes through breeding and selection to optimize the balance between stress resistance and yield/quality, achieving a new equilibrium where the knockout benefit is preserved while minimizing negative impacts on productivity
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention discloses a tomato glutaredoxin SIGRXC9 gene and its application. The present invention first identifies the tomato glutaredoxin SIGRXC9 gene, knock out of SIGRXC9 in tomato MT (micro-Tom) by Agrobacterium-mediated method for function identification and obtains a result that SIGRXC9 gene deletion results in tomato hypersensitivity to chilling stress, and reduced plant height, leaf length and width, which further demonstrates that SIGRXC9 plays an important role in controlling development and response to low-temperature stress.