CRISPR/Cas-Mediated Genome Editing for Sugarcane Improvement

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) is among the significant industrial cash crops. It serves as an essential raw material to produce biofuels and the global sugar industry. Natural selection, conventional breeding, and more recently, the cutting-edge tools from genetic engineering and biotechnology, have been used to develop and improve the crop since the dawn of civilization. Heterozygous, polyploid, and complex genome of the sugarcane makes its improvement through breeding approaches a bit difficult. The vulnerability potential of sugarcane to abiotic/biotic stressors is further increased by their frequent occurrences. Due to this, efforts to improve sugarcane varietals using biotechnological approaches have increased. In this context, the implementation of genome editing technologies will result into yield promising output. The CRISPR/Cas9 approach was successful in targeting multiple alleles of the magnesium chelatase gene in sugarcane. The genome-edited lines of sugarcane with modified cell wall components for bioethanol production were developed in Brazil. As far as the regulatory system for genome editing is concerned, the site-directed nuclease 1 and 2 (SDN 1 and 2) are exempted. In the present paper, the applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology to combat biotic/abiotic stresses in sugarcane in order to improve its agricultural traits have been summarized.