Development of genome-editing technologies for plant pathogenic fungi

In this study, we focused on the DSB repair machinery as a mechanism of asexual pathogenic and genomic evolution in P. oryzae . Using the fungal TALEN system, we demonstrated that DSBs trigger genome rearrangement with deletions, duplications, and translocations of AVR-Pita through somatic and octopic HR between repetitive sequences in the genome. In addition, based on the unique DSB repair machinery of P. oryzae , we developed original genome editing technologies using the fungal CRISPR/Cas9 system. These developed genome editing technologies would accelerate high-throughput functional genomics and reveal genome evolution mechanisms in plant pathogenic fungi.