Genome editing technologies for value-added traits in plants

Abstract Restructuring plant genome is the contemporary molecular biology efforts to meet the nutritional need of ever-growing world population. Genome editing technologies enable the targeted delivery of suitable desired traits within the species or even across genetic barriers. Genome editing with engineered nucleases (GEEN) is an advance biotechnology technique to incorporated or delete gene with precision and speed. These deliberate interventions at the molecular level can alter the structural or functional characteristics of biological entities in a heritable manner and thus change the nature of plant itself. Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) are the important class of programmable nucleases used for crop improvement for the last two decades. Apart from agriculture, this powerful tool has also been used in medicine, industrial production, and environmental remediation. This chapter describes recent advancements in the genome editing technologies and their use to improve agricultural traits.