Application of the CRISPR/Cas system for gene editing in ornamental crops

Abstract

Ornamental plants are widespread and popular all over the world. Floriculture industry is of significant economic importance for some countries. Favorable prospects for the development of industrial floriculture were also noted for Russia. This can be facilitated by CRISPR/Cas, a breakthrough method of editing genes responsible for economically valuable traits of plants, which allows bypassing the limitations of the potential intraspecific variability of plants and solving the problem of obtaining non-transgenic modified plants. This article analyzes the current status of ornamental crop breeding using the CRISPR/Cas genetic editing method. The articles were selected from the Scopus database. A search encompassing 50 most common ornamental crops yielded the total of 26 articles on genetic editing using the CRISPR/Cas system, in particular: 8 articles featuring petunia; 1 per each crop on chrysanthemum, kalanchoe, poinsettia and tobacco; 2 per each on dendrobium, gentian, lily and torenia, and 3 per each on phalaenopsis and ipomoea. The found articles were divided into three groups. The first group includes works devoted to studies of mechanisms of genes controlling useful traits, as well as the optimization of the CRISPR/Cas method for a particular crop. The second group unites works aimed at modifying color of flowers and leaves. The third group includes works on increasing the life span of a flower and obtaining double flowers. The review offers the works on the optimization of gene editing in representatives of the orchid family Orchidaceae Juss. Also, it notes the prospects of gene editing by the CRISPR/Cas system, which can accelerate qualitative improvements in breeding and raise it effectiveness, it being especially important in present conditions.