Novel Approaches for Genome Editing to Develop Climate Smart Crops

Abstract

We face the hypercritical trial of generating adequate food for the rising human populace living in an altering and unsteady climate. As climate change remains to perform a leading role in agriculture and food surety, there exists necessity for advancement in development of climate smart, robust crop plants providing high micronutrient and high yield constancy. Climate smart crops emphasize on resilient ones which are prime to food and revenue fortification under progressive climate alteration and unpredictability. Plant transformation has certified important insights into plant biology and improved industrial agriculture, but transformation and regeneration remain arduous for most crops. Genome editing provides innovative opportunities for improving crop production but counts on regeneration and genetic transformation as process bottlenecks. In this chapter we converse high-throughput genome editing through application of other biologically dynamic molecules into plant cells, DNA transfer and gene expression without integration, non-Agrobacterium measures to deliver DNA into plant cells, synthetic approaches along with “Modular” Agrobacterium strains. Synthetic biology must be implemented for de novo strategy of transformation methods, as targeted genome editing utilizes artificial nucleases with capacity to escalate plant improvement by delivering the mechanisms to customize genomes promptly in a precise and anticipated manner. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) system, a lately established means for the introduction of site-specific double stranded DNA breaks along with two well-established genome editing stages: zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are described with possible applications in development of climate smart crops. Genome editing is a potential game changer in crop enhancement when climate resilience is the need of the hour. This chapter shall summarize the ongoing trends and future prospects of genome editing as a promising technique in developing climate smart crops.