The ability to precisely alter DNA sequences in living cells makes possible detailed functional analysis of genes and genetic pathways. In plants, targeted genome modification has applications ranging from understanding plant gene function to developing crops with new traits of value. We have enabled efficient methods for targeted modification of plant genomes using sequence-specific nucleases. With zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), TAL effector nucleases (TALENs), and CRISPR/Cas9 reagents, we have achieved targeted gene knockouts, replacements and insertions in a variety of plant species. Current work is focused on optimizing delivery of nucleases and donor DNA molecules to plant cells to more efficiently achieve targeted genetic alterations.

Liu, D., Myers, E.A., Xuan, S., Prichard, L.E., Donahue, L.I., Ellison, E.E., Starker, C.G. and Voytas, D.F. (2024) ‘Heritable, multinucleotide deletions in plants using viral delivery of a repair exonuclease and guide RNAs.’, Plant physiology, p. kiae015. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae015.

Zinselmeier, M.H., Casas-Mollano, J.A., Cors, J., Sychla, A., Heinsch, S.C., Voytas, D.F. and Smanski, M.J. (2024) ‘Optimized dCas9 programmable transcriptional activators for plants’, Plant Biotechnology Journal. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14441.

Chamness, J.C., Kumar, J., Cruz, A.J., Rhuby, E., Holum, M.J., Cody, J.P., Tibebu, R., Gamo, M.E., Starker, C.G., Zhang, F. and Voytas, D.F. (2023) ‘An extensible vector toolkit and parts library for advanced engineering of plant genomes.’, The plant genome, p. e20312. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20312.

Cody, J.P., Maher, M.F., Nasti, R.A., Starker, C.G., Chamness, J.C. and Voytas, D.F. (2023) ‘Direct delivery and fast-treated Agrobacterium co-culture (Fast-TrACC) plant transformation methods for Nicotiana benthamiana.’, Nature protocols, 18(1), pp. 81–107. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-022-00749-9.

Yu, Y., Hu, H., Voytas, D.F., Doust, A.N. and Kellogg, E.A. (2023) ‘The YABBY gene SHATTERING1 controls activation rather than patterning of the abscission zone in Setaria viridis.’, The New phytologist, 240(2), pp. 846–862. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19157.

Liu, D., Xuan, S., Prichard, L.E., Donahue, L.I., Pan, C., Nagalakshmi, U., Ellison, E.E., Starker, C.G., Dinesh-Kumar, S.P., Qi, Y. and Voytas, D.F. (2022) ‘Heritable base-editing in Arabidopsis using RNA viral vectors’, Plant Physiology, 189(4), pp. 1920–1924. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiac206.

Nagalakshmi, U., Meier, N., Liu, J.-Y., Voytas, D.F. and Dinesh-Kumar, S.P. (2022) ‘High-efficiency multiplex biallelic heritable editing in Arabidopsis using an RNA virus’, Plant Physiology, 189(3), pp. 1241–1245. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiac159.

Atkins, P.A.P., Gamo, M.E.S. and Voytas, D.F. (2021) ‘Analyzing Plant Gene Targeting Outcomes and Conversion Tracts with Nanopore Sequencing’, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(18). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22189723.

Khakhar, A., Wang, C., Swanson, R., Stokke, S., Rizvi, F., Sarup, S., Hobbs, J. and Voytas, D.F. (2021) ‘VipariNama: RNA viral vectors to rapidly elucidate the relationship between gene expression and phenotype.’, Plant physiology, 186(4), pp. 2222–2238. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiab197.

Nasti, R.A., Voytas, D.F. (2021) ‘Attaining the promise of plant gene editing at scale’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(22), p. e2004846117. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004846117.

Nasti, R.A., Zinselmeier, M.H., Vollbrecht, M., Maher, M.F. and Voytas, D.F. (2021) ‘Fast-TrACC: A rapid method for delivering and testing gene editing reagents in somatic plant cells’, Frontiers in Genome Editing, 2, p. 32. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fgeed.2020.621710.

Center for Precision Plant Genomics

National Academy of Sciences Member (elected 2019)