Chapter 13 - Genetic engineering in plants using CRISPRs

Breeding for improved crop varieties necessitates the presence of phenotypic variation either in the natural or artificially developed population. Genetic engineering based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) supported by genomics and phenomics offers precision and speed in developing new varieties. Potential application of the CRISPR-based tools is limitless—from simple disruption of the gene of interest to precise base editing and in planta directed evolution of a target gene. Novel variants of a Cas protein are either developed through structure-guided manipulation or search for the orthologs in microbial and even viral genomes. A CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection systems were developed with increased speed, sensitivity, and low cost for diagnostic purposes. This chapter will provide a brief overview of the most recent and intriguing developments in a field of the CRISPR-based manipulation of plant genomes.