Agriculture is an important source of human food. However, current agricultural practices need modernizing and strengthening to fulfill the increasing food requirements of the growing worldwide population. Genome editing (GE) technology has been used to produce plants with improved yields and nutritional value as well as with higher resilience to herbicides, insects, and diseases. Several GE tools have been developed recently, including clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) with nucleases, a customizable and successful method. The main steps of the GE process involve introducing transgenes or CRISPR into plants via specific gene delivery systems. However, GE tools have certain limitations, including time-consuming and complicated protocols, potential tissue damage, DNA incorporation in the host genome, and low transformation efficiency. To overcome these issues, nanotechnology has emerged as a groundbreaking and modern technique. Nanoparticle-mediated gene delivery is superior to conventional biomolecular approaches because it enhances the transformation efficiency for both temporal (transient) and permanent (stable) genetic modifications in various plant species. However, with the discoveries of various advanced technologies, certain challenges in developing a short-term breeding strategy in plants remain. Thus, in this review, nanobased delivery systems and plant genetic engineering challenges are discussed in detail. Moreover, we have suggested an effective method to hasten crop improvement programs by combining current technologies, such as speed breeding and CRISPR/Cas, with nanotechnology. The overall aim of this review is to provide a detailed overview of nanotechnology-based CRISPR techniques for plant transformation and suggest applications for possible crop enhancement.

Water scarcity is a major challenge to wheat productivity under changing climate conditions, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. During recent years, different agronomic, physiological and molecular approaches have been used to overcome the problems related to drought stress. Breeding approaches, including conventional and modern breeding, are among the most efficient options to overcome drought stress through the development of new varieties adapted to drought. Growing drought-tolerant wheat genotypes may be a sustainable option to boost wheat productivity under drought stress conditions. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim to screen different wheat genotypes based on stress tolerance levels. For this purpose, eleven commonly cultivated wheat genotypes (V₁ = Akbar-2019, V₂ = Ghazi-2019, V₃ = Ujala-2016, V₄ = Zincol-2016, V₅ = Anaj-2017, V₆ = Galaxy-2013, V₇ = Pakistan-2013, V₈ = Seher-2006, V₉ = Lasani-2008, V₁₀ = Faisalabad-2008 and V₁₁ = Millat-2011) were grown in pots filled with soil under well-watered (WW, 70% of field capacity) and water stress (WS, 35% of field capacity) conditions. Treatments were arranged under a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates. Data on yield and yield-related traits (tillers/plant, spikelets/spike, grains/spike, 100 grain weight, seed and biological yield) and physio-biochemical (chlorophyll contents, relative water content, membrane stability index, leaf nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content) attributes were recorded in this experiment. Our results showed that drought stress significantly affected the morpho-physiological, and biochemical attributes in all tested wheat varieties. Among the genotypes, all traits were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) higher in wheat genotype Faisalabad-2008, including biological yield (9.50 g plant⁻¹) and seed yield (3.39 g plant⁻¹), which was also proven to be more drought tolerant than the other tested genotypes. The higher biological and grain yield of genotype Faisalabad-2008 was mainly attributed to greater numbers of tillers/plant and spikelets/spike compared to the other tested genotypes. The wheat genotype Galaxy-2013 had significantly lower biological (7.43 g plant⁻¹) and seed yield (2.11 g plant⁻¹) than all other tested genotypes, and was classified as a drought-sensitive genotype. For the genotypes, under drought stress, biological and grain yield decreased in the order V₁₀ > V₂ > V₁ > V₄ > V₇ > V₁₁ > V₉ > V₈ > V₃ > V₆. These results suggest that screening for drought-tolerant genotypes may be a more viable option to minimize drought-induced effects on wheat in drought-prone regions.

Soil salinity is one of the most limiting stresses for crop productivity and quality worldwide. In this sense, jasmonates (JAs) have emerged as phytohormones that play essential roles in mediating plant response to abiotic stresses, including salt stress. Here, we reviewed the mechanisms underlying the activation and response of the JA-biosynthesis and JA-signaling pathways under saline conditions in Arabidopsis and several crops. In this sense, molecular components of JA-signaling such as MYC2 transcription factor and JASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN (JAZ) repressors are key players for the JA-associated response. Moreover, we review the antagonist and synergistic effects between JA and other hormones such as abscisic acid (ABA). From an applied point of view, several reports have shown that exogenous JA applications increase the antioxidant response in plants to alleviate salt stress. Finally, we discuss the latest advances in genomic techniques for the improvement of crop tolerance to salt stress with a focus on jasmonates.

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.

Given the limited therapeutic management of infectious diseases caused by viruses, such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the medicinal use of essential oils obtained from Eucalyptus trees has emerged as an antiviral alternative, either as a complement to the treatment of symptoms caused by infection or to exert effects on possible pharmacological targets of viruses. This review gathers and discusses the main findings on the emerging role and effectiveness of Eucalyptus essential oil as an antiviral agent. Studies have shown that Eucalyptus essential oil and its major monoterpenes have enormous potential for preventing and treating infectious diseases caused by viruses. The main molecular mechanisms involved in the antiviral activity are direct inactivation, that is, by the direct binding of monoterpenes with free viruses, particularly with viral proteins involved in the entry and penetration of the host cell, thus avoiding viral infection. Furthermore, this review addresses the coadministration of essential oil and available vaccines to increase protection against different viruses, in addition to the use of essential oil as a complementary treatment of symptoms caused by viruses, where Eucalyptus essential oil exerts anti-inflammatory, mucolytic, and spasmolytic effects in the attenuation of inflammatory responses caused by viruses, in particular respiratory diseases.