Crop genome editing: a way to breeding by design

Increasing population and consumption in our planet is placing unprecedented challenges on agriculture for meeting food security and sustainability needs [1]. Meanwhile, the adaptation of modern agricultural techniques [2] is central to minimize extensive losses due to abiotic stresses [3] under global climate change. Among these agricultural technology systems, crop breeding is the core node of all technologies and is finally reflected in crops and their products. Crop breeding deals with the creation and selection of the desired variation in target varieties with improved yield, quality and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Random mutagenesis using physical, chemical, and biological approaches has been limited by the availability of desirable mutant alleles [4].