Role of CRISPR-Cas9 in agricultural science

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR), a potent gene-editing tool was found in 2012. CRISPR is a genetic engineering technique that enables genome editing in living creatures and is based on the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 antiviral defense mechanism. It is simpler, less expensive, and more accurate than previous gene editing techniques. It also has a wide range of valuable uses, including improving crops and treating genetic diseases. Plant science has benefited more from the CRISPR/Cas9 editing technique than medical science. CRISPR/Cas9 has been used in a range of crop-related research and development domains, including disease resistance, plant development, abiotic tolerance, morphological development, secondary metabolism, and fiber creation, as a well-developed cutting-edge biotechnology technique. This paper summarized the role of the CRISPR-CAS9 tool in modern agricultural science.

The goal of modern agricultural technology is to grow more crops on the same amount of land [1,2]. The biggest issue in the modern world is climate change. Globally, the temperature is rising steadily as a result of climate change. The sector of agriculture is affected by many forms of stress, including intense cold or heat, salinity, and waterlogging. In this setting, there is a greater need for food production due to the expanding population [3]. It is now possible to alter the genomic sequence of different crops using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique. As a result, the crops can withstand salinity, drought, or waterlogging. The crop can no longer be harmed by those pressures [4]. In all crops, new varieties are being created utilizing the CRISPR-Cas9 system which is more sophisticated and productive than before. CRISPR-Cas9 technology has also been used on a growing number of monocot and dicot plant species to increase their productivity, quality, nutritional value and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses [5]. The objective of this review is to know the role and future prospective of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool Figure 1.

CRISPR-Cas9 role in plant science

The CRISPR-Cas9 technique has been used on a variety of plants, including Brassica oleracea, Hordeum vulgare, Cucumis sativus, Glycine max, Citrus sinensis, Nicotiana tabacum, Solanum lycopersicum, Oryza sativa, Solanum tuberosum, Triticum aestivum, Sorghum bicolor, Zea mays, Vitis vinifera, etc [6,7].

Pathogen, such as: Magnaporthe oryzae and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), which causes serious damage to the rice plants [8,9]. Tomato, citrus, orange, cucumber, and cotton can defend against pathogens, Pseudomonas syringae, Xanthomonas citri, Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc), cucumber vein yellowing virus, and Verticillium dahliae, respectively. The CRISPR-Cas9 technique used Agrobacterium transformation to knock out the targeted genes [8,10].

To make crops resistant to abiotic stress, the CRISPR-Cas9 method edited or knocked out the targeted gene. The AGROS8 gene for maize and the PPa6 gene for rice are the most popular examples. G-gene deletion (gs3 and dep1) allows rice to withstand salt stress [5]. When the ppa6 gene was knocked out, rice exhibited increased alkaline stress resistance [11]. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which eliminated the OsDST gene, was used to create rice that can withstand salt and drought [12].

In rice, gw2, gw5, and tgw6, negative regulators of grain weight, were knocked out using CRISPR-Cas9 technology; mutants produced as a result of genome editing have increased grain size and weight. CRISPR-Cas9-edited mutants of GASR7 increased the grain weight of wheat. CRISPR-Cas9 edited cis-regulatory element CLV-WUS was used to increase tomato fruit size [13].

Although there are several potential uses for CRISPR/Cas9 technology in crop breeding, there are still certain restrictions. Since these features are necessary for employing this instrument, a significant obstacle is the small number of genes affecting crucial agronomic parameters. In this context, there is a pressing need to understand genomic sequence data and investigate premium genetic resources for agricultural enhancement. From this, it is understood that the role of CRISPR-Cas9 in crop development is immense. In the future, the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology in the agriculture sector will be widespread, and it is now a matter of time.

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