Genome Engineering For Crop Improvement

This book serves the teachers, researchers and the students as a handy and concise reference as well as guidebook while designing and planning for use of the advanced technologies for crop improvement. The content of the book is designed to cover the latest genome engineering techniques for crop improvement. The conventional breeding has got its limitations such as non-availability of desired genes within the genepool. In many cases, breeding has been highly used and it has nearly reached its highest limit so far as the productivity and production of crops are concerned. However, with increasing need of food and decreasing resources, including water, land, labour, etc., to feed the growing population, the alternative available ways of increasing crop productivity need to be explored and exploited. Genome engineering has a wide scope that includes technologies such as genetic engineering and transgenesis, RNA technologies, CRISPR, cisgenics and subgenics for better productivity and more efficient biotic and abiotic stress management. Therefore, the book is planned to enlighten the readers with the advanced technologies with examples and case studies, whenever possible. Efforts will be made to emphasize on general efforts on various major food crops; however, it would also be made clear that such efforts could be taken as proofs of concepts and that this could be extrapolated keeping the demand in mind.

Part 1 of this volume reviews advances in gene editing techniques such as insertion-based genome edits, base editing, guide RNAs and CRISPR/Cas off targeting. Part 2 surveys applications of gene editing in key cereal and vegetable crops.

The contributions of plant genetics to the production of higher yielding crops of superior quality are well documented. These successes have been realized through the application of plant breeding techniques to a diverse array of genetically controlled traits. Such highly effective breeding procedures will continue to be the primary method employed for the development of new crop cultivars; however, new techniques in cell and molecular biology will provide additional approaches for genetic modification. There has been considerable speculation recently concerning the potential impact of new techniques in cell and molecular biology on plant improvement. These genetic engineering techniques should offer unique opportunities to alter the genetic makeup of crops if applied to existing breeding procedures. Many questions must be answered in order to identify specific applications of these new technologies. This search for applications will require input from plant scientists working on various aspects of crop improvement. This volume is intended to assess the interrelationships between conventional plant breeding and genetic engineering.

"The book...is, in fact, a short text on the many practical problems...associated with translating the explosion in basic biotechnological research into the next Green Revolution," explains Economic Botany. The book is "a concise and accurate narrative, that also manages to be interesting and personal...a splendid little book." Biotechnology states, "Because of the clarity with which it is written, this thin volume makes a major contribution to improving public understanding of genetic engineering's potential for enlarging the world's food supply...and can be profitably read by practically anyone interested in application of molecular biology to improvement of productivity in agriculture."

This book compiles the relevant information related to genome editing tools and their roles in crop improvement. The book contains a brief introduction about various genome editing tools and their application in major crops. It discusses the genome editing approaches and the strategies used for genome editing in different crops. Some of the chapters cover the detailed methodology of sgRNA design, vector construction and transformation in different crops followed by data analysis. A few chapters focus on the applications of genome editing tools towards crop improvement. This book will be of particular interest to plant biologists working in the field of genome editing and crop breeders. It will provide valuable information and useful material for our readers’ experimental work.

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation. Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.

Over the last few decades, various techniques have been developed to alter the properties of plants and animals. While the targeted transfer of recombinant DNA into crop plants remains a valuable tool to achieve a desirable breeding outcome, integration of transgenes into the host genome has been random, which in part, leads to reduced acceptance of GMOs by the general population in some parts of the world. Likewise, methods of induced mutagenesis, such as TILLING, have the disadvantage that many mutations are induced per plant, which has to be removed again by expensive backcrossing. Advances in genome sequencing have provided more and more information on differences between susceptible and resistant varieties, which can now be directly targeted and modified using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. By selecting specific gRNAs occurrence of off-target modifications are comparatively low. ZFNs and TALENs- based approaches required re-engineering a new set of assembled polypeptides for every new target site for each experiment. The difficulty in cloning and protein engineering prevented these tools from being broadly adopted by the scientific community. Compared to these technologies, designing the CRISPR toolbox is much simpler and more flexible. CRISPR/Cas9 is versatile, less expensive and highly efficient. It has become the most widely used technology for genome editing in many organisms. Since its inception as a powerful genome-editing tool in late 2012, this breakthrough technology has completely changed how science is performed. The first few chapters in this book introduce the basic concept, design and implementation of CRISPR/Cas9 for different plant systems. They are followed by in-depth discussions on the legal and bio-safety issues accompanying commercialization and patenting of this emerging technology. Lastly, this book covers emerging areas of new tools and potential applications. We believe readers, novice and expert alike, will benefit from this all-in-one resource on genome editing for crop improvement. Chapter 17 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Plant breeders have used mutagenic agents to create variability for their use in crop improvement. However, application of mutagenic agents has its own drawbacks, such as non-specificity and random nature, simultaneous effect on large numbers of genes, and induction of chromosomal aberrations. To overcome these limitations, several genome editing systems have been developed with the aid of cutting-edge technology rooted in the expertise of several research fields. Molecular Plant Breeding and Genome Editing Tools for Crop Improvement is a pivotal reference source that provides an interdisciplinary approach to crop breeding through genetics. Featuring coverage of a broad range of topics including software, molecular markers, and plant variety identification, this book is ideally designed for agriculturalists, biologists, engineers, advocates, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.