CRISPR-Cas: A robust technology for enhancing consumer-preferred commercial traits in crops

Abstract

The acceptance of new crop varieties by consumers is contingent on the presence of consumer-preferred traits, which include sensory attributes, nutritional value, industrial products and bioactive compounds production. Recent developments in genome editing technologies provide novel insight to identify gene functions and improve the various qualitative and quantitative traits of commercial importance in plants. Various conventional as well as advanced gene-mutagenesis techniques such as physical and chemical mutagenesis, CRISPR-Cas9, Cas12 and base editors are used for the trait improvement in crops. To meet consumer demand, breakthrough biotechnologies, especially CRISPR-Cas have received a fair share of scientific and industrial interest, particularly in plant genome editing. CRISPR-Cas is a versatile tool that can be used to knock out, replace and knock-in the desired gene fragments at targeted locations in the genome, resulting in heritable mutations of interest. This review highlights the existing literature and recent developments in CRISPR-Cas technologies (base editing, prime editing, multiplex gene editing, epigenome editing, gene delivery methods) for reliable and precise gene editing in plants. This review also discusses the potential of gene editing exhibited in crops for the improvement of consumer-demanded traits such as higher nutritional value, colour, texture, aroma/flavour, and production of industrial products such as biofuel, fibre, rubber and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the bottlenecks and challenges associated with gene editing system, such as off targeting, ploidy level and the ability to edit organelle genome have also been discussed.

Recalcitrance to transformation, a hindrance for genome editing of legumes

“…This method can be tailored to perform the insertion, deletion, or substitution of nucleotide(s) in the target site ( Das et al, 2022 ; Xie et al, 2022 ). More details on the process and advances of genome editing have been elaborated in many previous reviews ( Aksoy et al, 2022 ; Ran et al, 2022 ; Verma et al, 2023b ). The mutants of approximately 28 crops including rice, tomato, wheat, and soybean, exhibiting economically important traits such as biotic/abiotic stress resistance and enhanced nutritional value, have been generated in the past few years (reviewed by Verma et al, 2023b ; Ukhatovaa et al, 2023 ).…”

“…More details on the process and advances of genome editing have been elaborated in many previous reviews ( Aksoy et al, 2022 ; Ran et al, 2022 ; Verma et al, 2023b ). The mutants of approximately 28 crops including rice, tomato, wheat, and soybean, exhibiting economically important traits such as biotic/abiotic stress resistance and enhanced nutritional value, have been generated in the past few years (reviewed by Verma et al, 2023b ; Ukhatovaa et al, 2023 ). Since transgene integration is not required in the mutants, this method has become the most widely used targeted transgene-free method ( Verma et al, 2023b ).…”

“…Genome editing of the legume crop, soybean, using the ribonucleoprotein transfer via the protoplast culture was previously achieved by Kim and Choi (2021) and Seol et al (2022) . Recently, there have been recommendations for the use of nanoparticles, such as carbon nanotubes, carbon dots, magnetic nanoparticles, and mesoporous silicon nanoparticles, to deliver the ribonucleoprotein complex for editing, by traversing the cell wall ( Naik et al, 2022 ; Verma et al, 2023b ). Due to the lack of transgene integration, there is no antibiotic selection in this strategy involving the transport of the Cas9-containing ribonucleoprotein complex.…”

Editing VvDXS1 for the creation of muscat flavour in Vitis vinifera cv. Scarlet Royal

“…Both base editing and prime editing enable precise editing of a DNA sequence without introducing double‐stranded breaks. Base editing relies on using a Cas9 nickase fused to a deaminase, either cytosine deaminase (CBE) or adenine deaminase (ABE), to deaminate the targeted base, converting C‐T and A‐G, respectively, and has been applied to a number of plant species with impressive successes (Molla et al ., 2021; Verma et al ., 2023). A successful attempt using CBE was recently made in grapevine targeting tonoplastic monosaccharide transporter genes and GAI1 (Ren et al ., 2022).…”

Application of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology in various fields: A review

“…This break can then be repaired through cellular repair mechanisms, allowing for the introduction of desired genetic modifications. The simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and high efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9 have made it a game-changer in the field of genetic engineering [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”