2017 ASHS Annual Conference

The CRISPR genome editing technology is revolutionizing all facets of biology, from medicine to agriculture. It enables generation of transgenic null mutants with unprecedented precision and efficiency—a welcome breakthrough for outcrossing woody perennials with long generation cycles. In this talk, I will present case studies of CRISPR genome editing in the woody model plant Populus for targeted mutations of multigene family members as well as tandemly arrayed genes. An underappreciated obstacle in genome editing of outcrossing species is the frequent occurrence of sequence polymorphisms that can render CRISPR genome editing ineffective. However, sequence polymorphism data are usually inaccessible from current genome portals, and are not considered in popular gRNA design programs. I will discuss genomic resources and variant-sensitive bioinformatics pipelines that we have developed to address the genome editing challenges of outcrossing, hybrid or polyploid species. Emerging applications beyond targeted mutagenesis, and critical gaps in our ability to harness this powerful technology will also be discussed.