Genome Engineering for Crop Improvement

12 Genome‐Editing Mediated Improvement of Biotic Tolerance in Crop Plants

Krishan Mohan Rai¹ and Harpal Singh²

¹ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA

² Department of Nematology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

CHAPTER MENU

• 12.1 Introduction
• 12.2 Plant Defense Response
• 12.3 Genome Engineering Tools for Engineering Disease Resistance
  • 12.3.1 Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)
  • 12.3.2 CRISPR/Cas9 for Resistance against Bacterial Pathogens
  • 12.3.3 CRISPR/Cas9 for Resistance against Fungal Pathogens
  • 12.3.4 CRISPR/Cas9 for Resistance against Viral Pathogens
    • 12.3.4.1 DNA Viruses
    • 12.3.4.2 RNA Viruses
  • 12.3.5 Transcription Activator‐Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs)
    • 12.3.5.1 TALENs for Resistance against Bacterial Pathogens
    • 12.3.5.2 TALENs for Resistance against Viral Pathogens
  • 12.3.6 Zinc‐Finger Nucleases (ZFNs)
    • 12.3.6.1 ZFNs for Resistance against Viral Pathogens
  • 12.3.7 Additional Genome‐Editing Targets for Disease Resistance in Crop Plants

12.1 Introduction

Plant pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and viruses are extremely diverse, have high multiplication rates and can readily spread in many ways. Distinct plant pathogens present a variety of challenges in combating infections and become the major limiting factor in crop productivity causing 20–40% yield penalty globally (Savary et al. 2012). Pathogens are equipped with several structural components and elicitors that facilitate ...