Genome editing for nutritional improvement of crops

Abstract

Genome editing techniques have offered excellent opportunities to develop new crop varieties with enhanced growth, productivity, stress tolerance, and quality. Targeted alterations in nutrition-related traits can provide a big solution for mitigating hidden hunger and ensuring nutritional security. Compared to traditional breeding methods, these novel techniques have provided scientists the ability to manipulate desirable traits precisely and quickly. The advancements and breakthroughs in these techniques are making them more efficient and cost effective. In this chapter, we have discussed the application of these approaches in the improvement of key agronomic traits attributed to nutritional quality of staple food crops, oilseed crops, and horticulture plants.