Targeted nucleases are powerful genomic tools to precisely change the target genome of living cells, controlling functional genes with high exactness. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) genome editing system has been identified as one of the most useful biological tools in genetic engineering that is taken from adaptive immune strategies for bacteria. In recent years, this system has made significant progress and it has been widely used in genome editing to create gene knock-ins, knock-outs, and point mutations. This paper summarizes the application of this system in various biological sciences, including medicine, plant science, and animal breeding.

Genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) analysis play a key role in any breeding program involving the development of new varieties for cultivation across various environments or in a specific region. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) method and the GGE biplot are the two main statistical tools that have emerged to analyze GEI in multi-environment trials (METs). The main goal of the present study was to identify the best-performing and stable barley genotypes for the warm regions of Iran. For this purpose, 18 new advanced barley genotypes were investigated in five warm locations in Iran during two cropping seasons (2021–2023). In all experiments, test genotypes were evaluated in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Based on results, grain yield was significantly dependent on environments (E), genotypes (G), and GEI. The GEI effect was further divided into three principal component axes (IPCAs). The AMMI method identified genotypes G3, G9, G10, and G14 as ideal genotypes due to their low IPCA scores and high performances. In the GGE biplot analysis, the initial two PCAs accounted for 49.36 % of the total variation of grain yield, including both G and GEI effects. Based on averaged two-year data, genotypes G3, G4, G10, and G14 showed particular adaptability in the Zabol and Moghan regions. Moreover, the ranking of test environments showed good discriminatory and representative abilities for the Zabol and Moghan regions, so these environments constituted a mega-environment in Iran's warm climate. The genotype ranking indicated G3, G10 and G14 genotypes as the superior genotypes with the highest grain yield and stability in different test environments. Moreover, these results were confirmed by the results obtained by WAASB and WAASBY biplots. In conclusion, genotypes G3, G10 and G14 can be suggested for commercial usage and cultivation in various regions in Iran's warm climate.

Evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships among crop wild relatives is an important task in crop improvement. The main objective of the current study was to estimate molecular variability within the set of 91 samples from Triticum aestivum, Aegilops cylindrica, and Aegilops crassa species using 30 CAAT box–derived polymorphism (CBDP) and start codon targeted (SCoT) markers. Fifteen SCoT and Fifteen CBDP primers produced 262 and 298 fragments which all of them were polymorphic, respectively. The number of polymorphic bands (NPB), polymorphic information content (PIC), resolving power (Rp), and marker index (MI) for SCoT primers ranged from 14 to 23, 0.31 to 0.39, 2.55 to 7.49, and 7.56 to 14.46 with an average of 17.47, 0.34, 10.44, and 5.69, respectively, whereas these values for CBDP primers were 15 to 26, 0.28 to 0.36, 3.82 to 6.94, and 4.74 to 7.96 with a mean of 19.87, 0.31, 5.35, and 6.24, respectively. Based on both marker systems, analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the portion of genetic diversity within species was more than among them. In both analyses, the highest values of the number of observed (Na) and effective alleles (Ne), Nei’s gene diversity (He), and Shannon’s information index (I) were estimated for Ae. cylindrica species. The results of cluster analysis and population structure showed that SCoT and CBDP markers grouped all samples based on their genomic constitutions. In conclusion, the used markers are very effective techniques for the evaluation of the genetic diversity in wild relatives of wheat.