Multiplexed, Precise Genome Engineering in Monocots with Twin Prime Editing Systems
    作者: Hongchao Li, Zhuangzhuang Chai, Xiaoli Shi, Chao Sun, Rui Zhang, Qiao Zhang, Zhenyu Li, Kang Zhang, Yuan Lei, Caixia Gao
    刊物名称: Nature Biotechnology
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    发布时间: 2026-06-05
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    摘要:
    Simultaneously introducing diverse genomic edits remains a challenge in crop genome engineering. We describe a twin prime editing-based knockout (TKO) system that installs stop codon clusters (SCCs) for precise translational termination with minimal in-frame mutations. TKO achieves knockout efficiencies of up to 70.5%, 58.6%, and 75.1% in rice, maize, and wheat protoplasts, respectively, and produces heritable knockout alleles in 96.8% of regenerated rice plants. In hexaploid wheat, TKO outperforms Cas9 by 4.2-fold in generating triple homeolog knockouts, largely by reducing in-frame mutations. Orthogonal TKO editors with sequence-divergent SCCs enable simultaneous knockout of up to ten genes without cross-interference. Integration of TKO with conventional prime editing establishes TRIM1 (TKO editor-enabled gene Rupture and development of Integrated Multi-type genome modification system) for simultaneous knockout and precise editing, achieving a 22.8% co-editing of four genes in rice.TRIM2 extends this capacity to kilobase-scale modifications via a PE-recombinase system, enabling a 4.9-kb insertion (1.2% efficiency) and gene knockout (up to 79.8%) in protoplasts.