Open AccessEngineering plant virus resistance: from RNA silencing to genome editing strategies
Author(s) -
Zhao Yaling,
Yang Xin,
Zhou Guohui,
Zhang Tong
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plant biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.525
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1467-7652
pISSN - 1467-7644
DOI - 10.1111/pbi.13278
Subject(s) - biology , genome editing , crispr , microbiology and biotechnology , rna silencing , gene silencing , plant virus , rna interference , genome , cas9 , rna , computational biology , genetics , virus , virology , gene
Summary Viral diseases severely affect crop yield and quality, thereby threatening global food security. Genetic improvement of plant virus resistance is essential for sustainable agriculture. In the last decades, several modern technologies were applied in plant antiviral engineering. Here we summarized breakthroughs of the two major antiviral strategies, RNA silencing and genome editing. RNA silencing strategy has been used in antiviral breeding for more than thirty years, and many crops engineered to stably express small RNA s targeting various viruses have been approved for commercial release. Genome editing technology has emerged in the past decade, especially CRISPR /Cas, which provides new methods for genetic improvement of plant virus resistance and accelerates resistance breeding. Finally, we discuss the potential of these technologies for breeding crops, and the challenges and solutions they may face in the future.