Opportunities for genome editing in vegetable crops

Abstract

Vegetables include high-value crops with health-promoting effects and reduced environmental impact. The availability of genomic and biotechnological tools in certain species, coupled with the recent development of new breeding techniques based on precise editing of DNA, provides unique opportunities to finally take advantage of the past decades of detailed genetic analyses, thus making improvement of traits related to quality and stress tolerance achievable in a reasonable time frame. Recent reports of such approaches in vegetables illustrate the feasibility of obtaining multiple homozygous mutations in a single generation, heritable by the progeny, using stable or transient transformation approaches, which may not rely on the integration of unwanted foreign DNA. Application of these approaches to currently non-sequenced/tissue culture recalcitrant crops will contribute to meet the challenges posed by the increase in population and climate change.