Chapter 11 - How Crisp is CRISPR? CRISPR-Cas-mediated crop improvement with special focus on nutritional traits

Abstract

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) and the CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein system have explicitly emerged as prominently effective tools that enable precise and targeted genome modifications or alterations in diverse organisms. The discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system in the prokaryote has transformed research in plant biology with its increase in popularity in recent years, and this is reflective of its ease of use. The mechanism of altering genomes is an offset of the innate ability of the Cas9 protein to induce double-stranded breaks in DNA in consonance with the short guide RNA molecules. This technique has proven to be more user friendly than zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), meganucleases, and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). Researchers have employed CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing across crop species, indicating its sophistication and ease of application to modify genomes for improved yield, nutritional value, and stress tolerance. We have compiled recent advancements in CRISPR-Cas-based genome editing tools that have significantly facilitated redesigning crops with better productivity, nutritive significance, and adaptation to stresses. The application of these techniques contributes to unraveling the basic biology in plants with the integration of genome-wide analyses, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and various bioinformatics platforms. Therefore, this offers futuristic model studies and their validation. In this review, we highlight recent CRISPR-Cas editing approaches as well as advances in crop improvement employing CRISPR-Cas9-mediated tools with special emphasis on nutritional traits, then discuss the social acceptance of gene-edited crops raised via this advanced molecular technology.