k-mer analysis of genome-edited potatoes

Genome editing technology is a powerful tool in breeding. In order to commercialize genome-edited crops, it is very important to confirm that no foreign genes remain in the genome. The goal of this study is to determine whether k-mer analysis using NGS data can detect foreign genes in genome-edited potato. It is hoped that this study will make k-mer analysis a standard method for detecting foreign genes, similar to PCR and Southern hybridization methods. In this study, NGS data were obtained from genomic DNA extracted from wild-type and genome-edited potatoes (cultivar Sassy) produced in a previous study (Plant Biotechnology 37, 205-211 (2020)), and k-mer analysis was performed.