Targeted genome-modification tools and their advanced applications in crop breeding

Editorial: Applications of fast breeding technologies in crop improvement and functional genomics study

“…These technologies include molecular selection, molecular mapping of genes, haploid induction, and genome editing mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 ( Figure 1 ) ( Gao, 2021 ). CRISPR/Cas9 has been applied to rapidly modify important crop traits such as disease resistance, quality, maturity, grain weight, sterility, and pre-harvest sprouting tolerance ( Li et al., 2024 ). Particularly, new haploid inducer lines have been created in maize, rice, Arabidopsis , wheat, alfalfa, foxtail millet, tomato, Brassica oleracea , and soybean by editing MTL ( PLA1 / NLD ), DMP , and PLD3 genes via CRISPR/Cas9 to produce haploid grains directly ( Qi et al., 2023 ; Tang et al., 2023 ; Qu et al., 2024 ).…”