Genome editing is a relevant, versatile, and preferred tool for crop improvement, as well as for functional genomics. In this review, we summarize the advances in gene-editing techniques, such as zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like (TAL) effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated with the Cas9 and Cpf1 proteins. These tools support great opportunities for the future development of plant science and rapid remodeling of crops. Furthermore, we discuss the brief history of each tool and provide their comparison and different applications. Among the various genome-editing tools, CRISPR has become the most popular; hence, it is discussed in the greatest detail. CRISPR has helped clarify the genomic structure and its role in plants: For example, the transcriptional control of Cas9 and Cpf1, genetic locus monitoring, the mechanism and control of promoter activity, and the alteration and detection of epigenetic behavior between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) investigated based on genetic traits and related genome-wide studies. The present review describes how CRISPR/Cas9 systems can play a valuable role in the characterization of the genomic rearrangement and plant gene functions, as well as the improvement of the important traits of field crops with the greatest precision. In addition, the speed editing strategy of gene-family members was introduced to accelerate the applications of gene-editing systems to crop improvement. For this, the CRISPR technology has a valuable advantage that particularly holds the scientist’s mind, as it allows genome editing in multiple biological systems.

Abioticstress such as drought is a potential threat posing a severe challenge to wheat production across the globe. The current study comparatively delineated the performance of elite Pakistani bread wheat genotypes at physiological (chlorophyll, canopy temperature, cell membrane percentage stability and leaf relative water content), agronomic (plant height, tillers plant⁻¹, flag leaf area, spike length, spikelets spike⁻¹, grains spike⁻¹, grain yield spike⁻¹, thousand grain weight and plant biomass) and genetic (TaDREB1A, TaGROS-A, TaLEA3, TaHSFA1a, TaWRKY44 and TaEXPA2) levels. Atri-replicate experiment was conducted in a two factorial arrangement using RCBD, and data were analyzed statistically using the computer-based programsStatistix8.1 and R-studio. In general, all wheat genotypes illustrated significant (p ≤ 0.05) alterations in physiological and agronomic traits under drought stress as compared to the control; however, this alteration was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) different among all genotypes owing to their varying genetic potential. Furthermore, these genotypes were evaluated for the extent of the association of physiological and agronomic traits using PCA, correlation and heatmap analysis, which proved statistically significant variation in the paired association of traits among all genotypes during drought stress as compared to the control. In addition, based on statistical evaluations, the genotypes Pakistan-13, Shahkar-13, AAS-11, Chakwal-86, Chakwal-50 and AUR-09 were found to be tolerant, while genotypes Anmol-97, Chakwal-97, Bhakkar-02 and BWP-97 were comparatively susceptible. Furthermore, these screened genotypes showed differential expression of drought-related genes, with relatively high expression in tolerant genotypes compared to susceptible genotypes. The current study concluded that physiological, agronomic and molecular characteristics are significantly interconnected, and these associations determine the end productivity of wheat genotypes during abiotic stress. Therefore, their integrated study can enhance the pace of wheat breeding for drought tolerance in the near future.

Buckwheat is an important grain crop known for its nutritional value and content of bioactive compounds, particularly rutin. In this study, we characterized diverseFagopyrum esculentumMoench germplasm for the diversity of agro-morphological characteristics and the rutin and quercetin content in seeds under the spring cultivation. Of the 251 germplasm accessions assessed, 193 had red stems, 182 had a pale brown seed coat color, and 238 had ovate seeds. The times taken to reach 50% flowering and 80% maturity ranged from 38–45 to 73–95 days, respectively. The 1000-seed weight (TSW) varied from 21 to 42 g. Overall, the content of rutin and quercetin ranged from 7.22–47.86 to 0–1.22 mg/100 g DW, respectively. The number of days to flowering and maturity showed negative correlations with TSW and rutin and quercetin content. However, we found that at 73–80 days after sowing, early-maturing germplasm had significantly higher mean rutin content than either intermediate-or late-maturing germplasm. The TSW weight showed a positive correlation with the content of rutin and quercetin. We identified promising accessions based early maturity (< 80 days), higher seed weight (≥ 35 g) and higher content of rutin (≥ 35 mg/100 g DW) and quercetin (≥ 1 mg/100 g DW). These accessions will help to enhance grain yield and the rutin and quercetin content in existing buckwheat cultivars for spring cultivation.