Comparable Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 Variants.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) has three major lineages BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3 1 . BA.1 rapidly became dominant and has demonstrated substantial escape from neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) induced by vaccination 2-4 . BA.2 has recently increased in frequency in multiple regions of the world, suggesting that BA.2 has a selective advantage over BA.1. BA.1 and BA.2 share multiple common mutations, but both also have unique mutations 1 ( Fig. 1A ). The ability of BA.2 to evade NAbs induced by vaccination or infection has not yet been reported. We evaluated WA1/2020, Omicron BA.1, and BA.2 NAbs in 24 individuals who were vaccinated and boosted with the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine 5 and in 8 individuals who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 ( Table S1 ).

Engineering melon plants with improved fruit shelf life using the TILLING approach.

BACKGROUND: Fruit ripening and softening are key traits that have an effect on food supply, fruit nutritional value and consequently, human health. Since ethylene induces ripening of climacteric fruit, it is one of the main targets to control fruit over ripening that leads to fruit softening and deterioration. The characterization of the ethylene pathway in Arabidopsis and tomato identified key genes that control fruit ripening. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To engineer melon fruit with improved shelf-life, we conducted a translational research experiment. We set up a TILLING platform in a monoecious and climacteric melon line, cloned genes that control ethylene production and screened for induced mutations that lead to fruits with enhanced shelf life. Two missense mutations, L124F and G194D, of the ethylene biosynthetic enzyme, ACC oxidase 1, were identified and the mutant plants were characterized with respect to fruit maturation. The L124F mutation is a conservative mutation occurring away from the enzyme active site and thus was predicted to not affect ethylene production and thus fruit ripening. In contrast, G194D modification occurs in a highly conserved amino acid position predicted, by crystallographic analysis, to affect the enzymatic activity. Phenotypic analysis of the G194D mutant fruit showed complete delayed ripening and yellowing with improved shelf life and, as predicted, the L124F mutation did not have an effect. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We constructed a mutant collection of 4023 melon M2 families. Based on the TILLING of 11 genes, we calculated the overall mutation rate of one mutation every 573 kb and identified 8 alleles per tilled kilobase. We also identified a TILLING mutant with enhanced fruit shelf life. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of TILLING as a reverse genetics tool to improve crop species. As cucurbits are model species in different areas of plant biology, we anticipate that the developed tool will be widely exploited by the scientific community.