PIVOT Platform Accelerates Single-Cell Functional Genetics in Plants
Researchers have developed PIVOT, a novel single-cell screening platform designed to accelerate the functional characterization of plant genes. Published in Nature Biotechnology, this method addresses the challenges of elucidating gene function in highly redundant signaling pathways, which are difficult to analyze using traditional whole-plant genetic screening tools. The PIVOT system utilizes Nicotiana benthamiana as a heterologous host to test gene libraries arrayed within a single leaf. It leverages viral superinfection exclusion to ensure that each cell receives only one genetic perturbation during pooled library delivery. Furthermore, the platform engineers a cell-surface protein as a phenotypic marker, enabling the precise isolation of cells of interest from heterogeneous populations. In a proof-of-concept study, the team successfully used PIVOT to recover regulators of cytokinin signaling from an Arabidopsis open reading frame library. This high-throughput approach allows for more efficient identification of gene functions and is anticipated to be broadly applicable across the plant kingdom, significantly advancing plant functional genetics research.
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PIVOT Platform Accelerates Single-Cell Functional Genetics in Plants
Researchers have developed PIVOT, a novel single-cell screening platform designed to accelerate the functional characterization of plant genes. Published in Nature Biotechnology, this method addresses the challenges of elucidating gene function in highly redundant signaling pathways, which are difficult to analyze using traditional whole-plant genetic screening tools. The PIVOT system utilizes Nicotiana benthamiana as a heterologous host to test gene libraries arrayed within a single leaf. It leverages viral superinfection exclusion to ensure that each cell receives only one genetic perturbation during pooled library delivery. Furthermore, the platform engineers a cell-surface protein as a phenotypic marker, enabling the precise isolation of cells of interest from heterogeneous populations. In a proof-of-concept study, the team successfully used PIVOT to recover regulators of cytokinin signaling from an Arabidopsis open reading frame library. This high-throughput approach allows for more efficient identification of gene functions and is anticipated to be broadly applicable across the plant kingdom, significantly advancing plant functional genetics research.
Nature Biotechnology