Genome-Editing Approaches for Biofortification of Cereal Crops

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AbstractHidden hunger is an overshadowed form of hunger resulting from inadequate micronutrients (Fe, Zn, I, Mg, vitamin A, etc.) supply and especially occurred in countries where cereal crops are the major source of nutrition. To ensure guaranteed food security and combat hidden hunger, recent technological advancement techniques such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) look promising. Over the past decades, CRISPR/Cas has transformed the genome-editing field. The exploration of this tool is a possible solution to increase the intrinsic nutritional quality of crops, i.e., through biofortification by targeting key genes. This genome-editing tool confers a precise range of gene editing such as altering a few nucleotides to deleting or inserting a gene segment in a targeted genome. In this chapter, we have highlighted the impacts of hidden hunger and possible solutions to alleviate this problem. This chapter mainly emphasizes on increasing the micronutrient content (Fe, and provitamin A, low phytate) by targeting key genes for each trait through genome-editing tools in cereal crops. We also have addressed recent advancements in CRISPR-mediated precise gene editing, and base editing, multiplex genome-editing approaches like polycistronic tRNA processing, Csy4 endoribonuclease, and Drosha-based multiplex genome editing has been deliberated. The challenges to implement genome editing in polyploid crops and the future prospectus of CRISPR/Cas approaches in cereal crops for biofortification have been discussed. This chapter provides a comprehensive review suggesting the exploration of these genome-editing tools in crop improvement.KeywordsHidden hungerMicronutrientsZFNsTALENsCRISPRBiofortificationMultiplex genome editing