AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents

Abstract Enhancing the oil or protein content of soybean, a major crop for oil and protein production is highly desirable. GmSWEET10a encodes a sugar transporter that is strongly selected during domestication and breeding, increasing seed size and oil content. GmSWEET10b is functionally similar to G...

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Main Authors: Jie Wang, Li Zhang, Shoudong Wang, Xin Wang, Suning Li, Pingping Gong, Mengyan Bai, Arnav Paul, Nathan Tvedt, Hengrui Ren, Maoxiang Yang, Zhihui Zhang, Shaodong Zhou, Jiayi Sun, Xianjin Wu, Huaqin Kuang, Zhenghua Du, Yonghui Dong, Xiaolei Shi, Meina Li, Diwakar Shukla, Long Yan, Yuefeng Guan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-06-01
Series:Advanced Science
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500290
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author Jie Wang
Li Zhang
Shoudong Wang
Xin Wang
Suning Li
Pingping Gong
Mengyan Bai
Arnav Paul
Nathan Tvedt
Hengrui Ren
Maoxiang Yang
Zhihui Zhang
Shaodong Zhou
Jiayi Sun
Xianjin Wu
Huaqin Kuang
Zhenghua Du
Yonghui Dong
Xiaolei Shi
Meina Li
Diwakar Shukla
Long Yan
Yuefeng Guan
author_facet Jie Wang
Li Zhang
Shoudong Wang
Xin Wang
Suning Li
Pingping Gong
Mengyan Bai
Arnav Paul
Nathan Tvedt
Hengrui Ren
Maoxiang Yang
Zhihui Zhang
Shaodong Zhou
Jiayi Sun
Xianjin Wu
Huaqin Kuang
Zhenghua Du
Yonghui Dong
Xiaolei Shi
Meina Li
Diwakar Shukla
Long Yan
Yuefeng Guan
author_sort Jie Wang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Enhancing the oil or protein content of soybean, a major crop for oil and protein production is highly desirable. GmSWEET10a encodes a sugar transporter that is strongly selected during domestication and breeding, increasing seed size and oil content. GmSWEET10b is functionally similar to GmSWEET10a, yet has not been artificially selected. Here, AlphaFold is used to find that C‐terminal variants of GmSWEET10a can endow enhanced or reduced transport activity. Guided by AlphaFold, the functionality is improved for GmSWEET10a in terms of oil content through gene editing. Furthermore, novel GmSWEET10b haplotypes possessing strengthened or weakened sugar‐transport capabilities that are absent in nature are engineered. Consequently, soybean oil content or protein content in independent GmSWEET10b gene‐edited lines during multi‐year and multi‐site field trials is consistently increased, without negatively affecting yield. The study demonstrates that the combination of AlphaFold‐guided protein design and gene editing has the potential to generate novel beneficial alleles, which can optimize protein function in the context of crop breeding.
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spelling doaj-art-4213d471ac4b400397debbeadea8753a2025-08-20T03:31:26ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442025-06-011223n/an/a10.1002/advs.202500290AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil ContentsJie Wang0Li Zhang1Shoudong Wang2Xin Wang3Suning Li4Pingping Gong5Mengyan Bai6Arnav Paul7Nathan Tvedt8Hengrui Ren9Maoxiang Yang10Zhihui Zhang11Shaodong Zhou12Jiayi Sun13Xianjin Wu14Huaqin Kuang15Zhenghua Du16Yonghui Dong17Xiaolei Shi18Meina Li19Diwakar Shukla20Long Yan21Yuefeng Guan22College of Resources and Environment Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaKey Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun 130102 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaJiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Oil Crops Genetic Improvement Crop Institute Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences Nanchang 330200 ChinaFujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology Haixia Institute of Science and Technology and School of Life Sciences Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaDepartment of Chemistry University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL 61801 USACenter for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL 61801 USAGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaCollege of Resources and Environment Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaCollege of Resources and Environment Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaCollege of Resources and Environment Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaKey Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun 130102 ChinaCollege of Resources and Environment Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaFujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology Haixia Institute of Science and Technology and School of Life Sciences Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaFujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology Haixia Institute of Science and Technology and School of Life Sciences Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 ChinaHebei Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences Shijiazhuang 050035 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaDepartment of Chemistry University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL 61801 USAHebei Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences Shijiazhuang 050035 ChinaGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution School of Life Sciences Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 ChinaAbstract Enhancing the oil or protein content of soybean, a major crop for oil and protein production is highly desirable. GmSWEET10a encodes a sugar transporter that is strongly selected during domestication and breeding, increasing seed size and oil content. GmSWEET10b is functionally similar to GmSWEET10a, yet has not been artificially selected. Here, AlphaFold is used to find that C‐terminal variants of GmSWEET10a can endow enhanced or reduced transport activity. Guided by AlphaFold, the functionality is improved for GmSWEET10a in terms of oil content through gene editing. Furthermore, novel GmSWEET10b haplotypes possessing strengthened or weakened sugar‐transport capabilities that are absent in nature are engineered. Consequently, soybean oil content or protein content in independent GmSWEET10b gene‐edited lines during multi‐year and multi‐site field trials is consistently increased, without negatively affecting yield. The study demonstrates that the combination of AlphaFold‐guided protein design and gene editing has the potential to generate novel beneficial alleles, which can optimize protein function in the context of crop breeding.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500290AlphaFoldCRISPR–Cas9gene editingoil contentprecision breedingsoybean
spellingShingle Jie Wang
Li Zhang
Shoudong Wang
Xin Wang
Suning Li
Pingping Gong
Mengyan Bai
Arnav Paul
Nathan Tvedt
Hengrui Ren
Maoxiang Yang
Zhihui Zhang
Shaodong Zhou
Jiayi Sun
Xianjin Wu
Huaqin Kuang
Zhenghua Du
Yonghui Dong
Xiaolei Shi
Meina Li
Diwakar Shukla
Long Yan
Yuefeng Guan
AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
Advanced Science
AlphaFold
CRISPR–Cas9
gene editing
oil content
precision breeding
soybean
title AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
title_full AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
title_fullStr AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
title_full_unstemmed AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
title_short AlphaFold‐Guided Bespoke Gene Editing Enhances Field‐Grown Soybean Oil Contents
title_sort alphafold guided bespoke gene editing enhances field grown soybean oil contents
topic AlphaFold
CRISPR–Cas9
gene editing
oil content
precision breeding
soybean
url https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500290
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