Genetic editing for improvement of fruit and small fruit crops

Abstract

Today the range of crops, which are studied and improved with the help of genetic editing technologies, in particular with CRISPR/Cas system, is actively expanding. High accuracy, ease of editing tools application and relative cheapness allow the use of this method in research in various fi elds of biology. The present systematic review summarizes the global experience of editing the genome of fruit and small fruit crops using the CRISPR/Cas9 tool and considers the prospect of using this newest biotechnological approach for crop improvement. The systematic review employed one of the most authoritative internet resources indexing the reviewed scientifi c publications, such as the Scopus database. By systematic search concerning 37 species of fruit and small fruit crops 115 publications were found, among which 26 described original research on CRISPR/Cas system application to fruit and small fruit crops. A total of 21 target genes have been edited in 8 crops. Some of the studies are consecrated to the approbation of the method or establishing/clarifying the functions of the target genes by their knockout. In the review we distinguished the publications describing application of gene editing tools for improving the properties of plants. By now 12 target genes have been successfully edited in fruit and small fruit plants. The main type of modifi cation is the knockout, which is aimed at negative regulators of the factors of resistance to pathogens or at changing the morphology of plants. In most cases the modifi ed plants have the desired characteristics and have been tested for resistance to pathogens by laboratory tests. It is discussed how much the target mutagenesis application to fruit and small fruit crops can be broadened in future.