Genome editing is powerful tool that has potential to edit the genome of the organism effectively and precisely for enhancing resistance to biotic stress, tolerance to abiotic stress, for improving quality traits and yield potential of the crop plant. Climate change is the biggest threat to food security in world. The major concern is abiotic stress factors such as temperature rise, floods and drought that will deleteriously affect the productivity of agricultural crops. The genome editing tools will serve the best purpose by engineering the genome of the plant for better adaptation and develop climate resilient varieties. The introduction of CRISPR/Cas technology and its recent advancements have simplified and amplified the usage of genome editing in agriculture.
Genome editing has been used to improve various climate change-responsive traits in crops for almost a decade, but in recent years, it has advanced to a phenomenal degree of success due to the development of more user-friendly genome editing tools. Further, it allows for faster genetic modification than other methods due to its simplicity, effectiveness, low cost, and capacity to target multiple genes. Additionally, it can genetically alter crop plants that were earlier neglected. Due to its accuracy and "foreign DNA-free engineering" methodology, this technology may also help in promoting and enabling the use of the products in terms of their societal acceptance. Several nations have publicly adopted crops that have had their genomes altered, but many others are still debating the matter. However, it is anticipated that this technology will undoubtedly go a long way towards making it possible for most countries to adopt genome-edited crops relatively easily. Overall, genome edited crops have enormous potential to be a game-changing tool for thriving in a rapidly changing climate and sustaining global food security.
The contributions to this collection will undergo peer-review. Novelty may vary, but the utility of approach should be linked to CRISPR and climate change. We welcome different kind of submissions as outlined below but are not limited to:
- Methods: Describing either new or existing methods that are significantly improved or adapted for specific purposes.
- Protocols: Detailed descriptions, including pitfalls and troubleshooting, to benefit those who may evaluate or employ the techniques.
- Perspective or General Commentaries on methods and protocols relevant for Plant Science research.
- Results: Description of the results achieved by using CRISPR to breed for climate changing scenarios.
- Reviews and mini reviews of topical methods and protocols highlighting the important future directions of the field.
GM Crops & Food accepts the following types of articles:
- Research papers
- Reviews
- Commentaries
Please contact Xiunan Kong at [email protected] with any queries regarding this Article Collection.
Dr. Karansher Sandhu (Karan), is a Soybean Product Development Scientist at Bayer Crop Sciences, where he is using his genomics, genetics, breeding, phenomics, data science, and machine learning skills to enhance genetic gain and product development in the soybean pipeline. Karan has more than six years of experience in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and data science working with multiple crops and projects with collaborators in the USA and other countries. Karan is keen on approaching crop improvement from different perspectives and angles. Karan’s research interests include the development of improved soybean varieties, breeding strategies for increasing genetic gain, utilization of molecular genetics for crop improvement, implementing high throughput phenotyping techniques, and the enablement of increased efficiency in breeding research operations. Karan has authored more than 30 research papers and book chapters in different reputed journals and publishers. Karan is currently working as an editor and reviewer for various esteemed journals.
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Saini, a Research Associate at South Dakota State University, South Dakota, USA has significant research expertise in Plant Breeding, Genomics, and Crop Biotechnology. He has also been awarded prestigious fellowships including DST-INSPIRE and ICAR-SRF during his Ph.D. program in India. Owing to his academic excellence, he has also been awarded several medals including the Chancellor Silver Medal, Vice-chancellor Gold Medals, Dr. M.S. Randhawa Medal, Best Research Scholar Award, Student of the Year award, etc. He has also contributed to the development of a comprehensive wheat QTL database (http://wheatqtldb.net/) as a core member. He has co-authored more than 30 scientific articles published in international journals of repute. He is also continuously involved in reviewing the articles for several reputed journals.
Dr. Jagmohan Singh is Assistant Professor (Plant Pathology) at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar, where his research expertise is in molecular plant pathology specifically in vegetable crops. He works to reveal plant-pathogen interaction mechanisms at the molecular level by genomics and transcriptomics techniques. He also works in a vegetable resistance breeding programme and in ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on vegetable crops to release varieties all over India. He has experience of conducting research in various internationally reputed institutes such as the University of Edinburgh, UK; Washington State University, USA, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. He is honored with various awards and fellowships namely Best Thesis Award, Award of Excellence in Academics, IPS-APS Travel Grant Award, Prime Minister Fellowship, IARI Senior Fellowship, ICAR-JRF Fellowship, University Merit Fellowship, oversea fellowships such as Khorana fellowship & NAHEP-CAAST fellowship. He is also chairperson of host resistance committee of the American Phytopathological Society, USA. Dr. Singh has authored more than 30 research papers and book chapters in various internationally reputed journals and also serves as editor and reviewer for various esteemed journals.
