Modifying meiotic recombination by targeting chromatin modifiers to crossover hotspots in Arabidopsis

Meiotic crossovers represent the most powerful tool available to plant breeders, enabling the combination of beneficial genetic variation to develop cultivars with improved agronomic traits. Unfortunately, no current technology allows for the targeted induction of recombination at specific genomic locations. As a result, breeding programs rely on screening large plant populations, making the process both time-consuming and resource-intensive. Here, by screening various epigenetic and transcriptional modifiers fused to dead Cas9 endonuclease, we determine influence of chromatin landscape on recombination at crossover hotspots.