Zero hunger is one of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations in 2015 to achieve global food security by 2030. The current harvest of crops is insufficient; feeding the world’s population and meeting the goal of zero hunger by 2030 will require larger and more consistent crop production. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein (CRISPR-Cas) technology is widely used for the plant genome editing. In this review, we consider this technology as a potential tool for achieving zero hunger. We provide a comprehensive overview of CRISPR-Cas technology and its most important applications for food crops’ improvement. We also conferred current and potential technological breakthroughs that will help in breeding future crops to end global hunger. The regulatory aspects of deploying this technology in commercial sectors, bioethics, and the production of transgene-free plants are also discussed. We hope that the CRISPR-Cas system will accelerate the breeding of improved crop cultivars compared with conventional breeding and pave the way toward the zero hunger goal.
Puccinia striiformis (Pst) is a devastating biotrophic fungal pathogen that causes wheat stripe rust. It usually loves cool and moist places and can cause 100% crop yield losses in a single field when ideal conditions for disease incidence prevails. Billions of dollars are lost due to fungicide application to reduce stripe rust damage worldwide. Pst is a macrocyclic, heteroecious fungus that requires primary (wheat or grasses) as well as secondary host ( Berberis or Mahonia spp.) for completion of life cycle. In this review, we have summarized the knowledge about pathogen life cycle, genes responsible for stripe rust resistance, and susceptibility in wheat. In the end, we discussed the importance of conventional and modern breeding tools for the development of Pst -resistant wheat varieties. According to our findings, genetic engineering and genome editing are less explored tools for the development of Pst -resistant wheat varieties; hence, we highlighted the putative use of advanced genome-modifying tools, i.e., base editing and prime editing, for the development of Pst -resistant wheat.
Cereals and pulses are consumed as a staple food in low-income countries for the fulfillment of daily dietary requirements and as a source of micronutrients. However, they are failing to offer balanced nutrition due to deficiencies of some essential compounds, macronutrients, and micronutrients, i.e., cereals are deficient in iron, zinc, some essential amino acids, and quality proteins. Meanwhile, the pulses are rich in anti-nutrient compounds that restrict the bioavailability of micronutrients. As a result, the population is suffering from malnutrition and resultantly different diseases, i.e., anemia, beriberi, pellagra, night blindness, rickets, and scurvy are common in the society. These facts highlight the need for the biofortification of cereals and pulses for the provision of balanced diets to masses and reduction of malnutrition. Biofortification of crops may be achieved through conventional approaches or new breeding techniques (NBTs). Conventional approaches for biofortification cover mineral fertilization through foliar or soil application, microbe-mediated enhanced uptake of nutrients, and conventional crossing of plants to obtain the desired combination of genes for balanced nutrient uptake and bioavailability. Whereas, NBTs rely on gene silencing, gene editing, overexpression, and gene transfer from other species for the acquisition of balanced nutritional profiles in mutant plants. Thus, we have highlighted the significance of conventional and NBTs for the biofortification of cereals and pulses. Current and future perspectives and opportunities are also discussed. Further, the regulatory aspects of newly developed biofortified transgenic and/or non-transgenic crop varieties via NBTs are also presented.
Crop plants should be resilient to climatic factors in order to feed ever-increasing populations. Plants have developed stress-responsive mechanisms by changing their metabolic pathways and switching the stress-responsive genes. The discovery of plant transcriptional factors (TFs), as key regulators of different biotic and abiotic stresses, has opened up new horizons for plant scientists. TFs perceive the signal and switch certain stress-responsive genes on and off by binding to different cis -regulatory elements. More than 50 families of plant TFs have been reported in nature. Among them, DREB, bZIP, MYB, NAC, Zinc-finger, HSF, Dof, WRKY, and NF-Y are important with respect to biotic and abiotic stresses, but the potential of many TFs in the improvement of crops is untapped. In this review, we summarize the role of different stress-responsive TFs with respect to biotic and abiotic stresses. Further, challenges and future opportunities linked with TFs for developing climate-resilient crops are also elaborated.
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