Genome Editing for Biotic Stress Resistance in Medicinal Plants

Abstract

<div>Plants are continually subjected to a range of physical and biological</div><div>stressors throughout their growth period. Insects and pests, like other biotic stressors,</div><div>have created significant concerns about lower productivity, which jeopardizes</div><div>agricultural production. Genome engineering, also known as genome editing, has</div><div>emerged as a cutting-edge breeding technique capable of altering the genomes of</div><div>plants, animals, microbes, and humans. Since ancient times, humans have used</div><div>medicinal plants for food, medicine, and industrial purposes. Both traditional</div><div>biotechnology and more recent next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods have been</div><div>used successfully to improve natural chemicals derived from plants with medical</div><div>potential. To modify the genome at the transcriptional level, protein-based editing</div><div>approaches like zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like end</div><div>nucleases (TALENs) were previously frequently employed. CRISPR/associated9</div><div>(Cas9) endonucleases are a powerful, resilient, and precise site-directed mutagenesis</div><div>method in transcriptome gene editing. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing employs specially</div><div>created guide RNAs to detect a three-base pair protospacer adjacent motif (PAM)</div><div>sequence situated downstream of the target DNA. The current review compiles current</div><div>research published between 2010 and 2020 on the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing</div><div>technologies in traditional medicines, describing significant innovations, difficulties,</div><div>and prospects, as well as noting the technique's broader application in crop and lesser</div><div>species. The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method has been utilised successfully in</div><div>plants to boost agricultural productivity and stress tolerance.</div><div>Despite this, only a small number of medicinal plants have been altered using the</div><div>CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technique because to a lack of appropriate</div><div>transformation and regeneration techniques, and also a lack of comprehensive genome</div><div>and mRNA sequencing data. However, a variety of secondary metabolic activities in</div><div>plants (e.g. alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and saponin) altered</div><div>lately using CRISPR/Cas-editing through knocking out, knocking in, and point</div><div>mutations, modulation of gene expression, including targeted mutagenesis.</div>