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Crop improvement is a continuous process in agriculture which ensures ample supply of food, fodder and fiber to burgeoning world population. Despite tremendous success in plant breeding and transgenesis to improve the yield-related traits, there have been several limitations primarily with the specificity in genetic modifications and incompatibility of host species. Because of this, new breeding techniques (NBTs) are gaining worldwide attention for crop improvement programs. Among the NBTs, genome editing (GE) using site-directed nucleases (SDNs) is an important and potential technique that overcomes limitations associated with classical breeding and transgenesis. These SDNs specifically target a compatible region in the gene/genome. The meganucleases (MgN), zinc finger nucleases (ZFN), transcription activator-like effectors nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated endonuclease (Cas) are being successfully employed for GE. These can be used for desired or targeted modifications of the native endogenous gene(s) or targeted insertion of / elements in the genomes of recipient organisms. Applications of these techniques appear to be endless ever since their discovery and several modifications in original technologies have further brought precision and accuracy in these methods. In this review, we present an overview of GE using SDNs with an emphasis on CRISPR/Cas system, their advantages, limitations and also practical considerations while designing experiments have been discussed. The review also emphasizes on the possible applications of CRISPR for improving economic traits in crop plants.

Transcription factors (TFs) are an important target in understanding the regulation of plant responses to environmental stress including moisture stress. Members of the same TF family may differ in their response to moisture stress. The expression pattern could vary between shoot and root tissues depending on level of moisture stress. A set of five rarely studied TF families viz., MADS-box (MCM1, AGAMOUS, DEFICIENS and SRF), Auxin Responsive Factor (ARF), Heme Activator Protein 2 (HAP2), Multiprotein Bridging Factor (MBF) and Homeobox (HB) together having 20 members in sorghum, were expression analyzed through quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in well watered and moisture stressed shoot and root tissues of sorghum using SYBR Green® to quantify dsDNA synthesis. Fluorescence values were used to calculate PCR efficiency by using LinRegPCR. The PTSb00029.1 and PTSb00033

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Genomics is the study of complete genetic material of an organism. It would not be an exaggeration to say that we are at the peak of genomics era as with the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies we have an enormous amount of genomic data coming every day. Genomics assisted breeding (GAB) is becoming increasingly popular in the field of crop improvement. GAB utilizes available genomics information of different crops and their relatives for the purpose of plant breeding to produce improved varieties of the crops. Proper knowledge of these tools and databases helps in speeding up the process of plant breeding. The available tools can be categorize in several groups such as: genetic diversity, Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL)/gene mapping, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) based Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, Molecular breeding, Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS), Genomic Selection (GS), Marker Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS), Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) etc. Most of the available tools are user friendly and where it is not, needs to be updated soon. There is an urgent need of the hour to develop the scientific resources and technical expertise for the proper and effective use of these tools. In this review, we have extensively covered the available tools and databases for the genomic assisted breeding and population genetics study of the plants. The details of these tools and databases along with their web links are also provided. We believe this review will be handy and useful for the scientists and researches of plant breeding, population genetics and genomics.