CRISPR/CAS9 gene editing in plants

Abstract

The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated nuclease 9 (Cas9) gene editing (GE) system, which is a programmable RNA guided gene editing technique that consist of the Cas9 nuclease and an engineered guide RNA (gRNA), has already revolutionized plant breeding. Since this system is precise, cheaper, faster, and highly efficient in GE in comparison to zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), it provides great expectance for improvement of yield against environmental and biotic stresses. Hence, this review concerns the general overview of utilization of CRISPR/Cas9 GE system together with its potentials for the development of non-transgenic crops, especially with the application of CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) technology, to meet the needs of increasing global population. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.