Author(s):

Suman Rawte and Ritu R Saxena

Abstract: Humans have been improving the yield and disease resistance of crop for hundreds of years through traditional agricultural methods. Targeted genome engineering also known as genome editing has emerged as an alternative to classical plant breeding and transgenic (GMO) methods to improve crop plants and ensure sustainable food production. The CRISPR/Cas system has emerged as a powerful tool to create targeted mutations in plants. CRISPR/Cas is a microbial adaptive immune system that uses RNA-guided nucleases to cleave foreign genetic elements. This technology can be used to investigate the function of a gene of interest or to correct gene mutations in cells via genome editing. The technique is extremely simple, economical and versatile in many applications with minor modifications. This simple, affordable, and elegant genetic scalpel is expected to be widely applied to enhance the agricultural performance of most crops in the near future.

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