Biology and Biotechnology of Environmental Stress Tolerance in Plants, Volume 3: Sustainable Approaches for

Enhancing Envir

l Stress Tolerance. Aryadeep Roychoudhury (Ed.)

© 2024 Apple A

with CRC Press (Taylor & Francis)

onmenta

ca

published

demic Press, Inc. Co-

CHAPTER 11

CRISPR/Cas and Its Potentiality as

an Effective Tool in Understanding

Environmental Stress Response

DEEPU PANDITA

Government Department of School Education, Jammu,

Jammu and Kashmir, India, E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The potential tools of genome editing revolutionize environmental stress

resistance in plants. CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing for the

designing of stress-tolerant plants is robust, versatile, cheap, specific, and

efficient. CRISPR/Cas system has 6 types of I, III, and IV (Class 1), II,

V, and VI (Class 2) with different Cas variants and nucleases. CRISPR-

associated protein (Cas) endonuclease generates single site-specific DNA

double-strand breaks (DSBs). The naturally occurring repairing pathways

repair DSBs by high-fidelity homology coordinated repair (HDR) and

predominant error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), which lead

to gene knockout or knock-in mutations or precise gene replacement. NHEJ

generates deletions or insertions at the DSB site, leading to frameshift and

loss in gene function. HDR approach repairs point mutations and acceler­

ates crop improvement. This chapter will focus on the contemporary know-

how and prospective applications of CRISPR/Cas mediated plant genome

editing to provide insights into the complex traits of environmental stress

response.