Abstract
A world with zero hunger is possible only through a sustainable increase in food production and distribution and the elimination of poverty. Scientific, logistical, and humanitarian approaches must be employed simultaneously to ensure food security, starting with farmers and breeders and extending to policy makers and governments. The current agricultural production system is facing the challenge of sustainably increasing grain quality and yield and enhancing resistance to biotic and abiotic stress under the intensifying pressure of climate change. Under present circumstances, conventional breeding techniques are not sufficient. Innovation in plant breeding is critical in managing agricultural challenges and achieving sustainable crop production. Novel plant breeding techniques, involving a series of developments from genome editing techniques to speed breeding and the integration of omics technology, offer relevant, versatile, cost-effective, and less time-consuming ways of achieving precision in plant breeding. Opportunities to edit agriculturally significant genes now exist as a result of new genome editing techniques. These range from random (physical and chemical mutagens) to non-random meganucleases (MegaN), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/associated protein system 9 (CRISPR/Cas9), the CRISPR system from Prevotella and Francisella1 (Cpf1), base editing (BE), and prime editing (PE). Genome editing techniques that promote crop improvement through hybrid seed production, induced apomixis, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress are prioritized when selecting for genetic gain in a restricted timeframe. The novel CRISPR-associated protein system 9 variants, namely BE and PE, can generate transgene-free plants with more frequency and are therefore being used for knocking out of genes of interest. We provide a comprehensive review of the evolution of genome editing technologies, especially the application of the third-generation genome editing technologies to achieve various plant breeding objectives within the regulatory regimes adopted by various countries. Future development and the optimization of forward and reverse genetics to achieve food security are evaluated.
Highlights
It is estimated that approximately 800 million people around the globe are facing acute food shortages, and around 2 billion are facing nutrient deficiency [1]
The results demonstrated that the rice base editor 9 resulted in higher editing accuracy and efficiency with lower off-target mutations compared to rBE3
The use of genome editing techniques (GETs) with speed breeding can greatly reduce the duration of the breeding cycle, and omics generated data can enhance the efficiency of identifying genes and their potential role in pathways controlling traits of significance
Summary
It is estimated that approximately 800 million people around the globe are facing acute food shortages, and around 2 billion are facing nutrient deficiency [1]. There is a need to significantly boost agricultural production by approximately 50% from current levels to ensure the availability of food [4] To overcome these challenges and achieve the second of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, namely that of “zero hunger and improved nutrition,” intensive efforts are required to shift from traditional agricultural production systems to modern agricultural ones [5]. The novel developments in agricultural biotechnology include engineering metabolic pathways that control traits of interest [11,12] These have helped to develop crop plants with better agronomic benefits, nutrition, and resistance to both biotic and abiotic threats. These technologies complement the shortcomings of traditional breeding methods and are flexible, allowing for the use of genomic data of several models and non-model plant species. The discussion on the regulatory concerns of several countries regarding genome editing for crops and their derived products will help to broaden the perspective of the scientific community; the integration of omics, speed breeding, and genome editing will foster our understanding to achieve genetic gain essential to meet global food demands
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