Genome editing for grass improvement and future agriculture

Abstract

Grasses, including turf and forage, cover most of the earth’s surface; predominantly important for land, water, livestock feed, soil, and water conservation, as well as carbon sequestration. Improved production and quality of grasses by modern molecular breeding is gaining more research attention. Recent advances in genome-editing technologies are helping to revolutionize plant breeding and also offering smart and efficient acceleration on grass improvement. Here, we reviewed all recent researches using (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas)-mediated genome editing tools to enhance the growth and quality of forage and turf grasses. Furthermore, we highlighted emerging approaches aimed at advancing grass breeding program. We assessed the CRISPR-Cas effectiveness, discussed the challenges associated with its application, and explored future perspectives primarily focusing on turf and forage grasses. Despite the promising potential of genome editing in grasses, its current efficiency remains limited due to several bottlenecks, such as the absence of comprehensive reference genomes, the lack of efficient gene delivery tools, unavailability of suitable vector and delivery for grass species, high polyploidization, and multiple homoeoalleles, etc. Despite these challenges, the CRISPR-Cas system holds great potential to fully harness its benefits in grass breeding and genetics, aiming to improve and sustain the quantity and quality of turf and forage grasses.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32271757) and Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Major Projects (Grant No. 22ZD6NA007).

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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