Enzymatic depletion of transposable elements in sequencing libraries and its application for genotyping multiplexed CRISPR-edited plants

Abstract

Whole-genome sequencing has become a common strategy to genotype individual plants of interest. Although a limited number of genomic regions usually need to be surveyed with this strategy, excess sequencing information is almost always generated at an appreciable financial cost. Repetitive sequences (e.g., transposons), which can account for more than 80% of the genome of some plants, are often not required in these genotyping projects. Therefore, strategies that enrich DNA coding for the protein-coding genes prior to sequencing can lower the cost to obtain sufficient sequence information. Here, we present the development and application of methylation-sensitive reduced representation sequencing (MsRR-Seq), which relies on the cytosine methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme MspJI to deplete constitutive heterochromatic DNA before library construction. By applying MsRR-Seq to citrus and maize, we show that protein-coding genes can be enriched in sequencing datasets. We then describe the application of MsRR-Seq to facilitate the identification of complex mutants from populations of citrus plants resulting from multiplex CRISPR/Cas9 editing of four genes. Overall, this work demonstrates an easy and low-cost method to enrich non-repetitive DNA in high-throughput sequencing libraries, an approach that is especially useful for large plant genomes with an excessively high proportion of methylated repetitive sequences.

Keywords: WGS sequencing; citrus; genotyping; methylation; reduced representation sequencing; sequencing libraries.