Integration of OMICs, GWAS and Genome Editing Techniques to Achieve Food and Nutritional Security

Submission Deadline: 15 April 2023 (closed) View: 106

Guest Editors

Summary

Global food security is increasingly challenging in light of population increase, the impact of climate change on crop production and limited land available for agricultural expansion. Therefore, it is crucial to produce 60-110% more food to fill the gap between food production and demand to serve enough quantity of food to this and future generations. Meanwhile, food nutritional values are of more interest to accommodate industrialized modern lives. The instability of food production caused by global climate change is another great challenge. The global warming rate is becoming more rapid in recent decades, with more frequent extreme climate change. Currently, human society is at a turning point of its time due to climate change, which is becoming increasingly more real and inevitable. The world is facing various unprecedented scenarios such as rising temperature to melting glaciers and resulting various biotic and abiotic stresses, ultimately leading to food scarcity. Under such circumstances, there is utmost requirement to unlock the repository of genetic basis and extensive utilization of germplasm to develop “Climate Resilient Cultivars” through the application of plant breeding and biotechnological tools. This requires future crops to adapt to this new and unpredictable environment.

Plant breeding and other emerging agricultural technologies have contributed considerably for food and nutritional security during the last few decades. Therefore, novel plant breeding techniques are urgently needed to enable sustainable agriculture; including new strategies to develop varieties and crops that have high yield potential, high yield stability, and superior grain quality and nutrition; nevertheless, less consumption of water, fertilizer, and chemicals should also be considered for environmental protection. Recently, OMICs, genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genome editing approaches have proven themselves as powerful tools that we have at our disposal to overcome substantial obstacles in the way of efficiency and productivity of current agricultural practices. The convergence of OMICs based techniques and GWAS has provided with high-quality genomes, re-sequencing data from thousands of genotypes, extensive transcriptome sequencing, development of haplotype map and web-based functional databases accelerated the identification of genes underlying important attributes relevant to food production and quality. In addition, genome editing techniques (CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated systems), CRISPR/Cas12a (Cpf1, CRISPR from Prevotella and Francisella 1), and Cas9-derived DNA base editors and prime editors), provide an unprecedented advancement in genome engineering due to precise DNA manipulation. The precise genetic modifications has opened new plethora options for researchers especially in plants sciences however, the global adoption is still facing strict regulatory regimes and debatable in various countries across the globe. The objective of compilation is to highlight the development and adoption of novel cutting edge techniques in plant sciences and to further enhance the understating for OMICs, GWAS and genome editing along with recent developments for regulatory measures for genome edit crops.  

In this Research Topic, we will focus on the advances in CRISPR techniques and their applications in functional genomics studies, which include: strategies to improve the on/off-target effects of CRISPR technology; advances in CRISPR-based gene therapy in human or animal genetic diseases; application of CRISPR technology in human or animal disease modeling; applications of CRISPR screen in functional genomics; CRISPR sgRNA design tools or databases; nucleic acid or non-nucleic acid detection with CRISPR technology, etc.

Keywords