Abstract
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is a biennial plant. Gene editing technology has not been extensively studied in this species. In this study, we report the induction of highly efficient and heritable transgenic roots in cabbage using the CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9) gene editing system, followed by the regeneration of whole plants from these transgenic roots. We designed and constructed a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing vector targeting the immune regulatory gene PUB13 (PLANT U-BOX 13) and introduced it into plants through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. By performing targeted mutations on PUB13, transgenic roots were obtained, the optimal TDZ (Thidiazuron) concentration for bud induction (0.9 mg·L(-1)) was determined, and then an efficient transformation protocol from transgenic roots to plants was established, leading to the regeneration of gene-edited plants. In summary, we successfully generated gene-edited cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) plants through PUB13 gene mutagenesis using an innovative transgenic root regeneration approach. A new pathway for obtaining gene-edited cabbage plants was established.