Application of CRISPR-Cas technology in food safety

Abstract

Food safety has become one of the most important public health issues in the world. Safety, nutrition, and food security are all interdependent. Unsafe food contributes to a cycle of illness and starvation that disproportionately affects young children, the elderly, and the ill. Therefore, it is essential to develop tests that are quick, efficient, and reliable. The CRISPR/Cas system is a bacterial acquired immune system that attacks invading DNA, plasmids, and phages. Genome editing using CRISPR/Cas offers new opportunities for plant breeding. Compared to animal cells, plant cells have rigid cell walls, making it challenging to deliver genome editing tools into plant cells. When using plants for industrial purposes, transgene insertion into the genome should be avoided. Therefore, delivery of Cas-gRNA ribonucleoprotein (RNP) into plant cells is preferred. This review proposed a novel RNP delivery strategy in rice and introduced a technology: whisker technology (commonly used for plant DNA delivery) to deliver RNPs into rice. This review also discussed ultrasound-assisted whisker technology via RNP management, combined with marker gene delivery, to identify genome editing events in rice decay cells in the absence of any other events, albeit at a lower frequency. Therefore, utilizing whiskers to generate RNP-based genome editing lineages in plants may be an attractive strategy.