Genome Editing-Based Strategies Used to Enhance Crop Resistance to Parasitic Weeds

Abstract

AbstractIn contrast to most autotrophic plants, which produce carbohydrates from carbon dioxide using photosynthesis, parasitic weed plants rely on host plants to form vascular connections through which they withdraw the required nutritive resources and water. Many important crop plants are infested by these heterotrophic plants leading to tremendous yield losses and rendering agricultural lands uncultivable. The parasitic weeds are physically attached to the host plants and therefore their control is challenging due to the lack of selective methods for killing the weeds without damaging the host crop. Fortunately, many host plants have pre-haustorium resistance, host initiation responses and post-attachment tolerance to these parasitic weeds. However, parasitic weeds have high fecundity, dispersal efficiency, and persistent seed storage in the soil all of which enable them to adapt to new hosts and break down the crop resistance. Recent discoveries in genome editing and gene silencing-based technologies open new opportunities to enhance crop resistance to parasitic weeds. Some genome editing-based studies targeting the seed germination of parasitic weeds created almost complete resistance in crop species. In this chapter, we give an overview of the host-parasitic interaction and host defence responses that can be targeted by genome editing or gene silencing technologies.