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. 2025:2892:49-67.
doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4330-3_4.

Gene Editing and Protein Tagging in the Oomycete Phytophthora infestans Using CRISPR-Cas12a

Carl S Mendoza  1 , Audrey M V Ah-Fong  1 , Howard S Judelson  2
Affiliations

Gene Editing and Protein Tagging in the Oomycete Phytophthora infestans Using CRISPR-Cas12a

Carl S Mendoza et al. Methods Mol Biol. 2025.

Abstract

Molecular genetic tools such as CRISPR-Cas gene editing systems are invaluable for understanding gene and protein function and revealing the details of a pathogen's life and disease cycles. Here we present protocols for genome editing in Phytophthora infestans, an oomycete with global importance as a pathogen of potato and tomato. Using a vector system that expresses variants of Cas12a from Lachnospiraceae bacterium and its guide RNA from a unified transcript, we first present a method for editing genes through the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway. We then describe an application of homology-directed repair (HDR), in which Cas12a is used to fuse a protein-coding gene with a fluorescent or epitope tag. Both methods should be adaptable to many oomycetes other than P. infestans.

Keywords: CRISPR; Fluorescent reporter; Gene editing; Oomycete; Transformation.

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