Wheat with greatly reduced accumulation of free asparagine in the grain, produced by CRISPR/Cas9 editing of asparagine synthetase gene TaASN2

Abstract

Free asparagine is the precursor for acrylamide, which forms during the baking, toasting and high-temperature processing of foods made from wheat. In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to knock out the asparagine synthetase gene, TaASN2, of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cv. Cadenza. A 4-gRNA polycistronic gene was introduced into wheat embryos by particle bombardment and plants were regenerated. T1 plants derived from 11 of 14 T0 plants were shown to carry edits. Most edits were deletions (up to 173 base pairs), but…