Genome Editing in Fruit Crops – A Review

Author: Anju Jayachandran, Shikha Jain, Shikha Saini, Poonam Maurya, Shubham Jagga, Kuldeep Kumar Shukla and Bhargav Kiran

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Abstract

Conventional fruit and fruit tree breeding has improved consumer-driven traits like fruit size, yield, nutritional value, scent, and flavour while also introducing agronomic features like disease resistance. However, because of the long juvenility, genetic improvement through conventional breeding has been slow. Genome editing, a novel genetic improvement tool that can greatly accelerate the development of perennial crops, has been made possible by advancement in genomics and molecular biology. This article describes genome editing technologies, including CRISPR-C as system-based genome editing, and various applications of them in enhancing fruit crops. In addition, base editing, a more precise editing technique that has recently been emerged for enhancing fruit and nut crops will also be discussed.

Keywords

genome editing, fruit crops, CRISPR/Cas 9, applications

Conclusion

Genome editing provides a wide range of potential for crop improvement, particularly fruit and nut trees, that are challenging to improve using traditional breeding techniques because they provide accurate, effective and more rapid genetic changes. Genome editing offers to hasten the breeding of fruit and nut crops, which is particularly necessary to fulfill the rising global demand under changing climate with less growth resources. CRISPR/Cas system have now been utilized mostly for gene knockdown experiments in fruit and nut crops. CRISPR/Cas 9 has the capacity to make specific changes to genes of interest. Genome editing will eventually be expanded to target a wide range of genes in order to produce fruit and nut crops with improved production and quality. Additionally, genome editing permits the direct incorporation of introducing new or enhanced traits into popular cultivars that are lacking in one or more, without altering their other characteristics. Crop varieties' wild ancestors have advantageous traits such the capacity to endure biotic and abiotic stressors, improvement in fruit quality, etc. Wild species are thus possible sources for genome editing. The lines produced by genome editing methods can be used directly as a new variety in industrial production or as pre-breeding stock in breeding programmes. Thus, with the development of genome editing, it is now possible to develop superior fruit and nut crops more quickly and with lower danger of off-target impacts.

References

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How to cite this article

Anju Jayachandran, Shikha Jain, Shikha Saini, Poonam Maurya, Shubham Jagga, Kuldeep Kumar Shukla and Bhargav Kiran (2022). Genome Editing in Fruit Crops – A Review. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4): 01-06.