{"title":"Cover Image:","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jipb.70382","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Casδ-1 is a compact, site-specific nuclease that is guided by a short crRNA without a tracrRNA, but its low editing activity in eukaryotic cells has limited broader applications. In this issue, Ge et al. (pages 3231–3242) describe enCasδ, an activity-enhanced Casδ-1 variant generated through hierarchical, structure-guided engineering of its interactions with the crRNA, protospacer-adjacent motif duplex, single-stranded DNA, and RNA–DNA heteroduplex. Carrying nine synergistic amino acid substitutions, enCasδ shows markedly improved editing activity in human cells and maize, reaching up to 80% efficiency at the <i>TS4</i> and <i>PSY1</i> loci. The cover depicts a vibrant genome-editing garden, symbolizing the expanded potential of enCasδ for robust genome engineering across diverse biological systems. Multiple researchers using smaller scissors in the upper left represent the lower efficiency of Casδ-1, whereas fewer researchers with larger scissors in the lower right illustrate the enhanced efficiency of enCasδ.</p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jipb.70382","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148903758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A genotype-independent and highly efficient Agrobacterium-mediated soybean genetic transformation system","authors":"Fengxue Jing, Leping Geng, Yanyan Zhang, Hongtao Xie, Jian-Kang Zhu, Jianhua Zhu","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70102","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70102","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A stable and efficient transformation system is crucial for functional genomics and trait improvement in soybean. This study developed a tissue culture based genetic transformation system incorporating dual selection (Spectinomycin and RUBY). This system significantly enhances transformation efficiency, shortens the transformation cycle, and demonstrates broad genotype independence, providing a powerful tool for soybean research and breeding.\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3163-3165"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13545816/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145666456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Synergistic engineering of Casδ nuclease for robust genome editing","authors":"Fanghui Ge, Chenchen Peng, Yang Du, Ying Chen, Zilong Zhao, Meixia Yu, Huairu Feng, Yuyang Xie, Siwei Sun, Shengnan Liu, Beibei Xin, Haiming Zhao, Sen Wu, Chao Bian, Zhijia Yang, Jinsheng Lai, Jian Chen","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70222","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70222","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Casδ is a recently identified evolutionary transitional CRISPR system characterized by its compact size (~900 amino acids), broad temperature tolerance, and guidance by a short crRNA without the requirement of a tracrRNA. However, the low editing efficiency of Casδ in eukaryotic cells limits its application. Here, we have developed a hierarchical engineering strategy to improve the genome editing activity of Casδ-1, with optimization focused on enhancing its interactions with the crRNA, the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) duplex, the single-stranded DNA substrate, and the RNA–DNA heteroduplex. Through this strategy, we successfully generated an activity-enhanced Casδ-1 variant, designated enCasδ, which harbors 9 amino acid substitutions that synergistically augment its editing efficiency. In human cell lines, enCasδ showed 1.3- to 29.3-fold higher editing activity than the wild-type Casδ-1 across ten tested genomic loci, with an average editing efficiency of 54.6%. In addition, enCasδ also mediated robust genome editing in maize; its editing efficiency increased by an average of 5.3-fold relative to Casδ-1, and reached up to an average of 80% at the <i>TS4</i> and <i>PSY1</i> loci in stable transgenic lines. The overall editing performance of enCasδ was comparable to that of <i>Streptococcus pyogenes</i> Cas9 (SpCas9) and other Cas12 nucleases. Collectively, enCasδ represents a highly optimized Casδ-1 variant that broadens the applicability of the Casδ CRISPR system and facilitates robust genome editing in both animal cells and plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3231-3242"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13545844/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147462449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nan Chai, Wuge Liu, Kangli Sun, Qian Qian, Yao-Guang Liu, Xianrong Xie, Qinlong Zhu, Jiantao Tan
{"title":"Engineering the efficient Exo-Cas12i2 for MITE manipulation in rice","authors":"Nan Chai, Wuge Liu, Kangli Sun, Qian Qian, Yao-Guang Liu, Xianrong Xie, Qinlong Zhu, Jiantao Tan","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70254","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70254","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Exo-Cas12i2 v1, a fusion of the 5′ exonucleases T5E and PapE, facilitates editing of TA-rich regions and mediates deletions of large genomic fragments. Exo-Cas12i2 v1-driven MITE manipulation enables precise regulation of genes involved in gibberellin-mediated cell elongation and root ethylene responses to generate favorable agronomic traits.\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3175-3177"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13545848/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147607555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimization of a hypercompact Fanzor2 system for improved genome editing performance in plants","authors":"Xingyu Cao, Hongfei Liu, Shasha Bai, Rui Wang, Lanqin Xia, Yongwei Sun","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70346","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70346","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Native Fanzor2 nucleases exhibit weak editing activity in plants. An optimized Fanzor2 system engineered via ωRNA optimization and structure-based protein mutagenesis achieves robust editing at recalcitrant genomic sites and enables cytosine base editing, supporting versatile crop genome modification via transformation or viral delivery.\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3190-3192"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13545819/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148434668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chen Zhang, Jingying Li, Yucai Li, Lei Yan, Christina Seok Yien Yong, Shaoya Li, Yubing He, Lanqin Xia
{"title":"Coupling of both a transactivation module and a double-stranded DNA-binding domain boosts Cas12i3 variant-based cytosine and adenine editing in plants","authors":"Chen Zhang, Jingying Li, Yucai Li, Lei Yan, Christina Seok Yien Yong, Shaoya Li, Yubing He, Lanqin Xia","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70154","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70154","url":null,"abstract":"<p>CRISPR/Cas12i3 belongs to the type V-I Cas system, characterized by its smaller protein size and less restricted canonical “TTN” protospacer adjacent motif. Developments of Cas12i3-mediated base editing systems for either C-to-T or A-to-G transitions will expand the editing scope and enrich the plant base editing toolkits for crop improvement. However, while the Cas12i3-based cytosine base editor (CBE) only shows very low editing efficiency in plants, its adenine base editor (ABE) has not been documented as yet. Here, we engineered a series of Cas12i3 (5M)-based CBEs (V0–V5) and ABEs (V0–V5) by fusing a deactivated dCas12i3 (5M) with a transactivation module VP64, a single-stranded DNA-binding domain Rad51, or a double-stranded DNA-binding domain HMG-D, or in combinations, and systemically evaluated their performance in rice protoplasts. Our results demonstrated that synergistic combinations of both VP64 and HMG-D outperformed other architectures and significantly boosted the efficiencies of Cas12i3 (5M)-based CBE and ABE for C-to-T and A-to-G base editing and expanded the editing window. In stable lines, in comparison to the non-fusion control, the optimized Cas12i3 (5M)-based CBE-V5 and ABE-V5 enabled up to 4.78- and 3.35-fold higher editing efficiencies, with the maximum C-to-T and A-to-G efficiencies reaching 32.35% and 38.24%, respectively, and a higher proportion of homozygous mutants in the T<sub>0</sub> generation. Furthermore, we generated herbicide-resistant rice germplasm by using CBE-V5 and ABE-V5, demonstrating their potential for precision breeding in crops. Together, here, we report novel Cas12i3 (5M)-based CBE and ABE that substantially enrich base editing toolkits for improvement of rice and potentially other crops.</p>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3196-3207"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13545831/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146049840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CasY7: An optimized Cas12i system for enhanced genome editing in monocot crops","authors":"Dating Zhong, Yanxiao Dong, Hong Pan, Yanan Fu, Yining Zhao, Shuting Ruan, Wencong Yu, Yiwen Wang, Qianlan Yin, Yanfei Zhang, Yisen Huang, Jiaqi Shen, Hongling Zhang, Yuxuan Wu, Jieting Xu, Yuming Lu","doi":"10.1111/jipb.70181","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jipb.70181","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The CRISPR–Cas12 family nucleases, particularly the Cas12i subtypes, are considered promising alternatives to Cas9 for genome editing in plants. We previously developed a new Cas12i variant, CasY7, which has been successfully applied in clinical trials; its performance in plants remains to be investigated. Initial testing in stable transgenic maize and rice showed that the codon-optimized CasY7 (pCasY7e1) achieved average editing efficiencies of 58.7% and 62.3% across five target sites, respectively, outperforming the typical Cpf1 (pCpf1) control that targets the same sites. To further enhance activity, we fused T5 exonuclease to CasY7 (pCasY7e2), which shifted mutation profiles toward larger deletions, and subsequently integrated an MS2 aptamer into the crRNA scaffold (pCasY7e3). The optimized pCasY7e3 system increased editing efficiencies to 87.7% in maize and 82.9% in rice—approximately 2.7-fold higher than pCpf1. We further demonstrated multiplexed editing in maize, generating biallelic dwarf mutants, and validated functionality in hexaploid wheat with editing efficiencies up to 58.8%. Overall, our comprehensive validation across 942 transgenic plants confirmed robust editing in maize, rice, and wheat, establishing CasY7 as a high-efficiency addition to the CRISPR toolkit.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Plant Biology","volume":"68 9","pages":"3208-3219"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147429499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}