Considerations in engineering viral vectors for genome editing in plants

Abstract

Plant viruses have been engineered to express proteins and induce gene silencing for decades. Recently, plant viruses have also been used to deliver components into plant cells for genome editing, a technique called virus-induced genome editing (VIGE). Although more than a dozen plant viruses have been engineered into VIGE vectors and VIGE has been successfully accomplished in some plant species, application of VIGE to crops that are difficult to tissue culture and/or have low regeneration efficiency is still tough. This paper discusses factors to consider for an ideal VIGE vector, including insertion capacity for foreign DNA, vertical transmission ability, expression level of the target gene, stability of foreign DNA insertion, and biosafety. We also proposed a step-by-step schedule for excavating the suitable viral vector for VIGE.