Page 60 - Plant Canada 2024 Proceeding

PLANT CANADA 2024

Monday, July 8

Dr. Dan Voytas
University of Minnesota

“Overcoming Bottlenecks in Plant Gene Editing”

Abstract: Plant gene editing is usually carried out
by delivering reagents such as Cas9 and sgRNAs to
explants in culture. Edited cells are then induced to
differentiate into whole plants by exposure to
various hormones. Creating edited plants through
tissue culture is often inefficient, requires
considerable time, only works with limited species
and genotypes and causes unintended changes to
the genome and epigenome. We have been
pursuing alternative approaches for plant gene
editing that minimize or obviate the need for tissue
culture. In one approach, we generate gene edited dicotyledonous plants through de
novo meristem induction. Developmental regulators and gene editing reagents are
delivered to somatic cells on whole plants. Meristems are induced that produce shoots
with targeted DNA modifications, and gene edits are transmitted to the next generation.
In a second approach, we use RNA viruses to deliver sgRNAs through infection to
transgenic plants that express Cas9. The sgRNAs are augmented with sequences that
promote cell-to-cell mobility and movement into the meristem. Gene edited shoots are
thus generated that transmit gene edits to the next generation. Because both
approaches minimize the need for tissue culture, they promise to help overcome this
bottleneck in plant gene-editing.

Bio: Dr. Dan Voytas is a Professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and
Development and the Director of the Center for Precision Plant Genomics at the University of
Minnesota. Dr. Voytas graduated from Harvard College in 1984 and received his Ph.D. from
Harvard Medical School in 1990. He conducted postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 2008, Dr. Voytas
was a professor at Iowa State University. Dr. Voytas’ research focuses on developing methods
to edit plant genomes. Dr. Voytas’ lab is currently optimizing methods for efficiently making
targeted genome modifications in a variety of plant species to advance basic biology and
develop new crop varieties. In addition to his position at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Voytas
co-founded Calyxt, an agricultural biotechnology company that used gene editing for crop
improvement. In 2019, Dr. Voytas was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

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