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  • Review Article
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Progress and prospects in plant genome editing

Abstract

The emergence of sequence-specific nucleases that enable genome editing is revolutionizing basic and applied biology. Since the introduction of CRISPR–Cas9, genome editing has become widely used in transformable plants for characterizing gene function and improving traits, mainly by inducing mutations through non-homologous end joining of double-stranded breaks generated by CRISPR–Cas9. However, it would be highly desirable to perform precision gene editing in plants, especially in transformation-recalcitrant species. Recently developed Cas9 variants, novel RNA-guided nucleases and base-editing systems, and DNA-free CRISPR–Cas9 delivery methods now provide great opportunities for plant genome engineering. In this Review Article, we describe the current status of plant genome editing, focusing on newly developed genome editing tools and methods and their potential applications in plants. We also discuss the specific challenges facing plant genome editing, and future prospects.

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Figure 1: General procedure of plant genome editing using CRISPR–Cas9.
Figure 2: DNA-free genome editing with CRISPR–Cas9 RNAs and RNP in plants.
Figure 3: Strategies for precision genome editing in plants.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize for the omission of any references that could not be included in this Review Article due to the space constraints. The work in the authors’ labs was supported by grants from the National Transgenic Science and Technology Program (2016ZX08010-002), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0100602), the Scientific Program of Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology (Z171100001517001), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB11030500), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672015).

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Correspondence to Caixia Gao or Jin-Long Qiu.

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Yin, K., Gao, C. & Qiu, JL. Progress and prospects in plant genome editing. Nature Plants 3, 17107 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.107

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