Journal: Plants
Article Title: Genome Editing of the NF-YA8 Gene Modifies Tomato Plant Architecture and Fruit Traits
doi: 10.3390/plants14121826
Figure Lengend Snippet: Sequences of selected ZFN-induced mutations in M1 and M2 plants. ( A ) The C2 and C3 samples exhibited a biallelic mutation at position 524 (T to C) in exon 5 situated 165 nucleotides upstream of the binding site of the coding sequence, resulting in an amino acid substitution, 175L to P. Additionally, a C deletion at position 581 in exon 5 was identified in C2 RC. ( B ) In exon 6, a C-to-T transition at position 692 was observed, leading to an amino acid change, 231A to V. Notably, the 692C-to-T mutation occurred within the ZFN target site (689–713). ( C ) The C2 sample exhibited a deletion of adenine at position 769 in exon 6, which is 56 nucleotides downstream of the ZFN site, leading to the amino acid modification 256R. These sequence modifications, occurring within and near the genome editing target region, may have functional implications for NF-YA8 gene regulation and tomato development. Symbols and abbreviations: RC, reverse complement; S, sample; P, primer. ( D ) Chromatograms showing the detected mutations. ( E ) Overview of the locations of the mutations within the protein’s conserved domains, including the well-conserved core domain with predicted A1 and A2 helices, the NF-YB/NF-YC interaction domain, the DNA binding region, and the ZFN target site. A SWISS-MODEL alignment of the NF-YA8 amino acid sequence (Model_01) with its template shows the predicted A1 and A2 helices enclosed in rectangles. Τhe predicted structure from AlphaFold was used to compare the original (WT) and mutated forms from M1 (M1-C3) and M2 (Vigorous) generations. The analysis focused on structural differences near the A1 and A2 helices. The native structure features L175 and A231, while the mutant clone C3 contains P175 and the Vigorous A231. Insets (squares) provide close-up views highlighting these residue-specific changes (circles).
Article Snippet: DNA sequence alignments were visualized using Benchling ( www.benchling.com ).
Techniques: Mutagenesis, Binding Assay, Sequencing, Modification, Functional Assay, Residue