CRISPR towards a Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Climate change and the need to feed an increasing population undermines food production and safety, representing the reasons behind the development of a new agriculture that is much more sustainable, productive and accessible worldwide. Genome editing and, in particular, clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) tools will play a major role in plant breeding to address these concerns. CRISPR/Cas includes a series of genome editing tools relying on the recognition and cleavage of target DNA/RNA sequences to introduce specific mutations.

Keywords

• CRISPR
• crop improvement
• genetic variability
• stress tolerance
• food quality
• synthetic biology