CRISPR/Cas9 opens new horizon of crop improvement under stress condition

• Published in: Biochimica et biophysica acta. General subjects Vol. 1868; no. 10; p. 130685
• Main Authors: Patra, Sanjib, Chatterjee, Debdatta, Basak, Shrabani, Sen, Susmi, Mandal, Arunava
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.10.2024
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; agricultural productivity; Biotic stress; CRISPR Cas9; CRISPR-Cas systems; CRISPR-Cas Systems - genetics; Crop improvement; crop yield; Crops, Agricultural - genetics; Gene Editing - methods; gene expression; Gene regulation; genetic variation; genome; Genome editing; Genome, Plant - genetics; hunger; malnutrition; Plant; Plant Breeding - methods; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; poverty; socioeconomics; Stress, Physiological - genetics; CRISPR Cas9; Plant; Abiotic stress; Gene regulation; Biotic stress; Crop improvement; Genome editing
• ISSN: 0304-4165; 1872-8006; 1872-8006
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2024.130685

Plants are exposed to a myriad of stresses, stemming from abiotic and biotic sources, significantly threatening agricultural productivity. The low crop yield, coupled with the global burden of population has resulted in the scarcity of quality food, exacerbating socio-economic issues like poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Conventional breeding methods for the generation of stress-tolerant plants are time-consuming, limit genetic diversity, and are not sustainable for the consistent production of high-yielding crops. In recent years, the use of high-throughput, genome editing (GE) technique has revolutionized the crop-improvement paradigm, ushering greater prospects for agricultural progress. Among these tools, the Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR), and its associated nuclease protein Cas9, have appeared as a ground-breaking technology, allowing precise knockout (KO), upregulation, and downregulation of target gene expression. Apart from its high efficacy and speed, this programmable nuclease offers exceptional specificity with minimal off-target effects. Here in, we aim to review the latest findings on the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool for generating resilience in plants against environmental stresses. •CRISPR/Cas9.•Biotic stress.•Abiotic stress.•Crop improvement.•Gene editing.