Towards CRISPR/Cas crops – bringing together genomics and genome editing

Abstract

Contents 682I.682II.683III.684IV.685V.685VI.688VII.690VIII.694694References694 Summary With the rapid increase in the global population and the impact of climate change on agriculture, there is a need for crops with higher yields and greater tolerance to abiotic stress. However, traditional crop improvement via genetic recombination or random mutagenesis is a laborious process and cannot keep pace with increasing crop demand. Genome editing technologies such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR‐associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) allow targeted modification of almost any crop genome sequence to generate novel variation and accelerate breeding efforts. We expect a gradual shift in crop improvement away from traditional breeding towards cycles of targeted genome editing. Crop improvement using genome editing is not constrained by limited existing variation or the requirement to select alleles over multiple breeding generations. However, current applications of crop genome editing are limited by the lack of complete reference genomes, the sparse knowledge of potential modification targets, and the unclear legal status of edited crops. We argue that overcoming technical and social barriers to the application of genome editing will allow this technology to produce a new generation of high‐yielding, climate ready crops.

The CRISPR/Cas revolution continues: From efficient gene editing for crop breeding to plant synthetic biology

“…Likewise, large‐scale whole‐genome sequencing analysis showed barely any off‐target events for SpyCas9 and LbCas12a (Tang et al ). Nevertheless, off‐target activity remains a concern to be considered, especially for targeted nuclease applications in crops with large and partly polyploid genomes, such as maize, rice and soybean (Scheben et al ), where highly repetitive sequences represent special challenges for site‐specific mutagenesis or GT. Therefore, other efforts to improve the on‐target/off‐target ratio will even further focus on the gRNA‐target binding.…”

Adapting legume crops to climate change using genomic approaches

“…Nevertheless, the decreasing cost of genome sequencing accompanied by the increase in precision of genome assemblies and functional annotation could improve gene prediction, though it should be emphasized that experimental characterization of genes of interest remains necessary for successful results. For a comprehensive review, see Scheben, Wolter, Batley, Puchta, and Edwards ().…”

Genetic and signalling pathways of dry fruit size: targets for genome editing‐based crop improvement

“…Fruit, therefore, account for a substantial part of the world’s agricultural output for human and livestock diet (Giovannoni, ; Tanksley, ), and they are a major target for crop improvement. Genome editing offers the potential to accelerate fruit size breeding gains and facilitate the introduction of novel mutations that are unavailable in current germplasm (Scheben and Edwards, ; Scheben et al , ).…”