Plant Genome Editing

Genome editing is an innovative technology that has brought about a revolution in the field of genetic engineering. In particular, the emergence of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) has created a breakthrough in genetic engineering by enabling easy, efficient, and precise genome manipulation. In this chapter, we introduce recent advances in plant genome editing technologies that include precise genome editing by gene targeting, base editing, and a new strategy called prime editing. The exploration of new CRISPR-Cas tools has been continuously reported, resulting in successful applications of engineered Cas9 proteins or newly identified CRISPR-Cas systems such as Cas9-NG, CRISPR-CasF, and CRISPR-Cas type I-D systems. The applications of CRISPR-Cas are already not limited to genome editing but have also expanded to other purposes, such as RNA editing by CRISPR-Cas13, transcriptional control, and epigenetic modification by CRISPR-dCas9 fused with effector proteins. The toolbox will be updated further in the near future, bringing new approaches to achieve precise genome editing and genome manipulation in plants. These developments will strongly facilitate the functional analysis of plant genes and contribute to plant breeding.