Impacts of CRISPR–Cas in Evolving Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2025 | Viewed by 1760

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: transgenic technology; genome editing; molecular breeding for soybean
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The advent of CRISPR–Cas technology has ushered in a new era in agriculture and plant biotechnology. Gene editing applications in agriculture have evolved from the initial gene knockout to techniques such as long fragment deletion, base editing, knock-in, fragment replacement, and the activation and inhibition of target genes. It is an important technology for improving key agronomic traits such as yield, quality, and stress tolerance. To comprehensively explore the wide-ranging impacts of CRISPR–Cas in the evolving field of agriculture, we have launched a Special Issue titled “Impacts of CRISPR–Cas in Evolving Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology”. This Special Issue will focus on the derivation and improvement of CRISPR–Cas-based technologies, including but not limited to enhancing precision, efficiency, multi-gene editing, and the discovery of new nucleases. Additionally, it will examine the improvement of agronomic traits using gene editing tools. We welcome both original review papers and research articles. We invite colleagues and experts to contribute manuscripts.

Dr. Yupeng Cai
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • CRISPR–Cas
  • gene editing
  • agronomic traits
  • plant biotechnology
  • multi-gene editing
  • vector delivery system
  • prime editing
  • yield
  • quality
  • stress tolerance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

15 pages, 1055 KB  
Review
Gene Editing for Sugar Perception Transport and Source–Sink Optimization in Soybean
by Shuqi Ding, Li Chen, Wensheng Hou and Yupeng Cai
Agronomy 2025, 15(11), 2621; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15112621 - 14 Nov 2025
Viewed by 531
Abstract
Sugars serve as primary energy sources and key essential signaling molecules, playing pivotal roles in regulating plant growth and development. Crop yield is tightly linked to the efficient partitioning of photoassimilates from source leaves to sink organs. This process is intricately regulated by [...] Read more.
Sugars serve as primary energy sources and key essential signaling molecules, playing pivotal roles in regulating plant growth and development. Crop yield is tightly linked to the efficient partitioning of photoassimilates from source leaves to sink organs. This process is intricately regulated by sugar sensing and transport systems, which orchestrate the dynamic source–sink balance by modulating phloem loading, long-distance translocation, and sink unloading. While substantial progress has been made in deciphering these mechanisms in model organisms, a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory network in soybean—a globally significant crop with unique plant architecture in which leaves, inflorescences, and pods are borne on nodes—remains elusive. The emergence of gene-editing tools, notably CRISPR/Cas9, offers powerful tools for dissecting redundant transporter families and targeted engineering of key regulatory nodes. This review synthesizes the current understanding of the molecular networks governing sugar perception and long-distance transport, with a specific focus on soybean. It further explores the utility of gene editing in accelerating the functional characterization of critical components and highlights potential molecular targets for manipulating source–sink dynamics to enhance soybean yield. Full article
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