Improving disease resistance in plants by editing the epigenome

Pathogens rely on expression of host susceptibility (S) genes to promote infection and disease. DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that affects gene expression. Theoretically, blocking access to S genes through targeted methylation could increase disease resistance. Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis, the causal agent of cassava bacterial blight (CBB), uses transcription activator-like20 (TAL20) to induce expression of the S gene MeSWEET10a. We directed methylation to the TAL20 effector binding element within the MeSWEET10a promoter using a synthetic zinc-finger DNA binding domain fused to a component of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. We demonstrate that this methylation prevents TAL20 binding, blocks transcriptional activation of MeSWEET10a and that these plants display increased resistance to CBB. This work establishes epigenome editing as a new strategy for crop improvement. Overall design: This dataset includes WGBS data to understand target DNA methylation in cassava.