Genome Editing in Oilseed Crops

Oilseed crops are cultivated around the world mainly for vegetable oil production. Soya bean, oil palm, rapeseed, groundnut, sunflower and olive are the major oil crops cultivated around the globe. The demand for vegetable oil consumption is increasing globally due to population explosion. Hence, increased yield of oilseed crops is essential to match the demand for oil consumption. For improving the production and productivity of oilseed crops, various crop improvement strategies have been used in the past. The modern genome editing techniques bear the potential to create mutations at the desired site in the genome and hence can create a revolution in oilseed crops. This chapter focuses on various applications of genome editing technology for the improvement of oilseed crops, such as improving oil quality and quantity, improving fatty acid content, biotic stress tolerance, yield improvement and others. We have also described various genes selected to improve the seed oil quantity and quality with the improved fatty acid profile in different oilseed crops using these genome editing technologies. Further, we have also discussed novel opportunities provided by genome editing technologies and various challenges for the employment of genome editing techniques in oilseed crops.