Harnessing genome editing for the advancement of underutilized crops: A critical review highlighting current progress, challenges and future prospects

IF 1.6 Q3 GENETICS & HEREDITY

Plant Gene Pub Date : 2025-07-30 DOI:10.1016/j.plgene.2025.100534

Sunandan Swain , Sadhan Debnath , Khalil Khamassi , Kajal Samantara , Parsa Ram , Amarjeet Kumar , Ashok Kumar Mahawer , Tanushri Kaul

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Underutilized cereals and legumes are the rich source of important minerals, essential amino acids, vitamins and phytochemicals. These crops possess valuable agronomic and physiological traits, including resilience to harsh climates and the ability to thrive in low-input farming systems. Such characteristics make them vital for agricultural diversification in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, and they hold significant potential for strengthening global food security and promoting sustainable agriculture. As they possess exceptional nutritional properties, there is a huge need for specific attention to these crops. However, they have been marginalized due to the dominance of high-yielding commercial varieties of major staple food crops, limited adaptability to diverse climatic conditions, insufficient investment, lack of awareness, and monoculture practices. In recent years, advancements in genomics and high throughput sequencing technologies have paved the ways for implementing cutting-edge genomics technologies, like RNA-guided nucleases and other advanced genome editing tools to improve traits such as yield and quality, stress tolerance, nutritional properties and antinutritional factors (ANFs) in these crops. This review mainly focusses on the importance of various underutilized crops, latest progress in gene-editing applications in these crops, major challenges in the implementation of this precise technology for crop improvement including regulatory restrictions and the need for tailored gene-editing approaches to unlock the full potential of these neglected crops. Additionally, it explores strategies to address technical hurdles, such as off-target effects and delivery methods, to enhance the effectiveness of these technologies in agricultural and crop improvement.

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利用基因组编辑促进未充分利用的作物：一篇强调当前进展、挑战和未来前景的批判性综述

未充分利用的谷物和豆类是重要矿物质、必需氨基酸、维生素和植物化学物质的丰富来源。这些作物具有宝贵的农艺和生理特性，包括对恶劣气候的适应能力和在低投入农业系统中茁壮成长的能力。面对气候变化和生物多样性丧失，这些特征对农业多样化至关重要，在加强全球粮食安全和促进可持续农业方面具有巨大潜力。由于它们具有特殊的营养特性，因此非常需要对这些作物进行特别关注。然而，由于主要粮食作物的高产商业品种占主导地位，对多种气候条件的适应性有限，投资不足，缺乏认识和单一栽培做法，它们已被边缘化。近年来，基因组学和高通量测序技术的进步为实施尖端基因组学技术铺平了道路，如rna引导核酸酶和其他先进的基因组编辑工具，以提高这些作物的产量和质量、耐受性、营养特性和抗营养因子（ANFs）等性状。这篇综述主要集中在各种未充分利用的作物的重要性、基因编辑在这些作物中的应用的最新进展、实施这种精确技术进行作物改良的主要挑战，包括监管限制和定制基因编辑方法的需求，以释放这些被忽视的作物的全部潜力。此外，它还探讨了解决技术障碍的战略，如脱靶效应和交付方法，以提高这些技术在农业和作物改良中的有效性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Plant Gene Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Plant Science

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

51 days

期刊介绍： Plant Gene publishes papers that focus on the regulation, expression, function and evolution of genes in plants, algae and other photosynthesizing organisms (e.g., cyanobacteria), and plant-associated microorganisms. Plant Gene strives to be a diverse plant journal and topics in multiple fields will be considered for publication. Although not limited to the following, some general topics include: Gene discovery and characterization, Gene regulation in response to environmental stress (e.g., salinity, drought, etc.), Genetic effects of transposable elements, Genetic control of secondary metabolic pathways and metabolic enzymes. Herbal Medicine - regulation and medicinal properties of plant products, Plant hormonal signaling, Plant evolutionary genetics, molecular evolution, population genetics, and phylogenetics, Profiling of plant gene expression and genetic variation, Plant-microbe interactions (e.g., influence of endophytes on gene expression; horizontal gene transfer studies; etc.), Agricultural genetics - biotechnology and crop improvement.