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Summary The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been demonstrated to efficiently induce targeted gene editing in a variety of organisms including plants. Recent work showed that CRISPR/Cas9‐induced gene mutations in Arabidopsis were mostly somatic mutations in the early generation, although some mutations could be stably inherited in later generations. However, it remains unclear whether this system will work similarly in crops such as rice. In this study, we tested in two rice subspecies 11 target genes for their amenability to CRISPR/Cas9‐induced editing and determined the patterns, specificity and heritability of the gene modifications. Analysis of the genotypes and frequency of edited genes in the first generation of transformed plants (T0) showed that the CRISPR/Cas9 system was highly efficient in rice, with target genes edited in nearly half of the transformed embryogenic cells before their first cell division. Homozygotes of edited target genes were readily found in T0 plants. The gene mutations were passed to the next generation (T1) following classic Mendelian law, without any detectable new mutation or reversion. Even with extensive searches including whole genome resequencing, we could not find any evidence of large‐scale off‐targeting in rice for any of the many targets tested in this study. By specifically sequencing the putative off‐target sites of a large number of T0 plants, low‐frequency mutations were found in only one off‐target site where the sequence had 1‐bp difference from the intended target. Overall, the data in this study point to the CRISPR/Cas9 system being a powerful tool in crop genome engineering.

The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)/Cas (CRISPR-associated) system has emerged as a powerful tool for targeted gene editing in many organisms, including plants. However, all of the reported studies in plants focused on either transient systems or the first generation after the CRISPR/ Cas system was stably transformed into plants. In this study we examined several plant generations with seven genes at 12 different target sites to determine the patterns, efficiency, specificity, and heritability of CRISPR/Cas-induced gene mutations or corrections in Arabidopsis. The proportion of plants bearing any mutations (chimeric, heterozygous, biallelic, or homozygous) was 71.2% at T1, 58.3% at T2, and 79.4% at T3 generations. CRISPR/Cas-induced mutations were predominantly 1 bp insertion and short deletions. Gene modifications detected in T1 plants occurred mostly in somatic cells, and consequently there were no T1 plants that were homozygous for a gene modification event. In contrast, ∼22% of T2 plants were found to be homozygous for a modified gene. All homozygotes were stable to the next generation, without any new modifications at the target sites. There was no indication of any off-target mutations by examining the target sites and sequences highly homologous to the target sites and by in-depth whole-genome sequencing. Together our results show that the CRISPR/Cas system is a useful tool for generating versatile and heritable modifications specifically at target genes in plants.

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Chemiluminescence (CL) phenomena of carbonates or bicarbonates of potassium, sodium, or ammonium with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of cobalt sulfate were reported. After cobalt(II) solution was injected into the mixture of carbonate/bicarbonate and hydrogen peroxide, a CL signal was given out briefly. The CL conditions of these systems were optimized. The CL reaction mechanisms were studied experimentally by examining the spectrum emitted by the CL system and the effect of various free radical scavengers on CL emission intensity. The results showed that the maximal emission wavelengths of the CO 3 2--H 2 O 2 -Co 2+ and HCO 3 --H 2 O 2 -Co 2+ systems were 440 and 490 nm, respectively. As a result, a radical scavenger of ascorbic acid, thiourea, and superoxide dismutase exhibited different effects on these CL systems. The different CL mechanisms involving the carbon dioxide dimer and the oxygen dimer were revealed, respectively.

A new-style pour point depressant (PPD) for crude oil was prepared by mixing the aminated copolymer and the composite commercial ethylene−vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) in fixed proportion. The aminated copolymer was synthesized by amination of terpolymer copolymerized with monomers octadecyl acrylate, maleic anhydride, and vinyl acetate. Moreover, the aminated copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H NMR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The interaction between components of the crude oil and the PPD was investigated by FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and cross-polarized light microscopy. The results showed that the PPD could form asphaltene−PPD−resin agglomerates. The new agglomerates became the efficient nucleator of the crude oil beneficiated with PPD. They changed the process of wax crystallization and greatly depressed the pour point of the crude oil.