Prospects of genome-editing in oilseed crops

Abstract

Genome editing (GE) has opened up new vistas for precise trait manipulation in different crops. The other main attractions of GE has been the production of transgene free trait manipulated plants even though the GE involves a genetic transformation step to introduce the GE machinery into the plant cells. This enables better social acceptability of the genome edited plants and already in many countries including India, the edited plants with SDN1 (site directed nuclease – class I) strategy have been exempted from the purview of regulations by statutory bodies (such as GEAC in india) that monitor and regulate the release of genetically modified organisms. Among the several tools of GE that have been discovered and harnessed, CRISPR/Cas9 has been the most efficient and widely used. CRISPR/Cas9 mediated GE has been demonstrated and adopted in oilseed crops already. However, there are limitations and bottle necks such as amenability of the crop for in vitro genetic manipulation and the availability of functionally validated gene models for trait manipulation, which are limiting application of GE widely in oilseed crops. We discuss here the prospects of GE in oilseed crops.