Disease Resistance in Crops Through CRISPR/Cas

Plants, being sessile, face a lot of abiotic and biotic stresses. Owing to these stresses, a big loss, up to 40%, has been observed in crop growth and production. Diseases are caused by malicious biotic factors result in huge economic losses. Disease loss may depend upon the type of disease such as bacterial, fungal, and viral disease. Integrated disease management (IDM) program has been adopted by plant protection departments to cope with the diseases and protect plants. In IDM, a number of physical, chemical, and biological methods are being applied to protect crops against diseases. It has been observed that some diseases are still not fully controlled and due to the climate change, new diseases have been emerged in the field causing huge economic losses. In this scenario, there is a need to mount new programs focusing on using novel approaches for plant protection and disease resistance in plants. Genome editing has been revolutionizing all fields of life sciences due to its marvelous applications. CRISPR/Cas, latest genome editing tool, has been used widely in plants, animals, bacteria, and other organisms. Due to its easy designing and effortless cloning, CRISPR/Cas has become a method of choice for researchers. Apart from its applications in crops for better growth, more production and high quality, CRISPR/Cas has also been used for disease resistance in plants. In this chapter, a brief introduction of CRISPR/Cas technology and its applications for diseases resistance in plants will be discussed in details.