Application of CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing in Crop Breeding and Improvement

Dear Colleagues,

Global food security faces mounting pressure from climate change, population growth, soil degradation, geopolitical instability, and health crises, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable agricultural solutions. While traditional breeding remains essential, it is often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and limited in genetic scope, making new breeding techniques critical for meeting future agricultural demands. These approaches accelerate innovation by enabling the development of high-yielding, climate-resilient, and pest- and disease-resistant crops, thereby helping farmers cope with environmental stress and limited resources. Among them, genome editing—particularly CRISPR/Cas technologies—stands out as a powerful and precise tool for targeted genetic modification, allowing faster and more cost-effective crop improvement with fewer unintended changes than conventional breeding.

This Special Issue aims to bring together original research that highlights the contribution of CRISPR/Cas9, addressing major agricultural challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, breeders, and policymakers, while presenting current advances, emerging trends, and future directions in genome editing for sustainable agriculture. Contributions may cover the development of climate-resilient, nutrient-enriched, and high-yield crops, as well as strategies to overcome technical and biological limitations in large-scale applications.

In parallel, this Special Issue also welcomes studies on the regulatory, ethical, and societal dimensions of genome-edited crops, particularly in light of recent EU developments, including the provisional agreement reached on 3 December 2025, by the European Parliament and Council on a new regulatory framework for certain new genomic techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas9, which treats many gene-edited plants as equivalent to conventionally bred varieties and underscores the importance of aligning scientific progress with policy to support global adoption.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated development of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, including drought, heat, salinity, disease, and pest resistance.
2. New breeding techniques and strategies for enhancing agronomic traits, such as yield improvement, nutrient uptake, and nutritional enhancement.
3. Optimization of editing efficiency, specificity, and multiplex genome editing for complex trait improvement.
4. Innovations in gene delivery mechanisms and regulatory elements tailored to diverse crop species.
5. Integration of genome editing with omics technologies (e.g., transcriptomics, metabolomics, and phenomics) and AI-driven strategies for trait discovery, target identification, prediction of off-target effects, and crop design.

Dr. Nikolaos Tsakirpaloglou
Prof. Dr. Alexios Polidoros
Dr. Panagiotis Moschou
Guest Editors

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