Development of Atropa belladonna L. Plants with High-Yield Hyoscyamine and without Its Derivatives Using the CRISPR/Cas9 System

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 22; no. 4; p. 1731
• Main Authors: Zeng, Lingjiang, Zhang, Qiaozhuo, Jiang, Chunxue, Zheng, Yueyue, Zuo, Youwei, Qin, Jianbo, Liao, Zhihua, Deng, Hongping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09.02.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Atropa belladonna; Atropa belladonna L; Atropine; Communication; CRISPR; CRISPR/Cas9; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Genomes; Germplasm; Herbal medicine; Hydroxylase; hyoscyamine 6β-hydroxylase; Mutagenesis; Mutation; Pharmaceutical industry; Scopolamine; transgenic plant; Transgenic plants; tropane alkaloids; hyoscyamine 6β-hydroxylase; tropane alkaloids; CRISPR/Cas9; Atropa belladonna L; transgenic plant
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms22041731

L. is one of the most important herbal plants that produces hyoscyamine or atropine, and it also produces anisodamine and scopolamine. However, the hyoscyamine content is very low, and it is difficult and expensive to independently separate hyoscyamine from the tropane alkaloids in . Therefore, it is vital to develop plants with high yields of hyoscyamine, and without anisodamine and scopolamine. In this study, we generated plants without anisodamine and scopolamine, via the CRISPR/Cas9-based disruption of hyoscyamine 6 -hydroxylase ( ), for the first time. Hyoscyamine production was significantly elevated, while neither anisodamine nor scopolamine were produced, in the . plants with homozygous mutations in . In summary, new varieties of with high yields of hyoscyamine and without anisodamine and scopolamine have great potential applicability in producing hyoscyamine at a low cost.