Abstract
Plants are continually subjected to a range of physical and biological
stressors throughout their growth period. Insects and pests, like other biotic stressors,
have created significant concerns about lower productivity, which jeopardizes
agricultural production. Genome engineering, also known as genome editing, has
emerged as a cutting-edge breeding technique capable of altering the genomes of
plants, animals, microbes, and humans. Since ancient times, humans have used
medicinal plants for food, medicine, and industrial purposes. Both traditional
biotechnology and more recent next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods have been
used successfully to improve natural chemicals derived from plants with medical
potential. To modify the genome at the transcriptional level, protein-based editing
approaches like zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like end
nucleases (TALENs) were previously frequently employed. CRISPR/associated9
(Cas9) endonucleases are a powerful, resilient, and precise site-directed mutagenesis
method in transcriptome gene editing. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing employs specially
created guide RNAs to detect a three-base pair protospacer adjacent motif (PAM)
sequence situated downstream of the target DNA. The current review compiles current
research published between 2010 and 2020 on the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing
technologies in traditional medicines, describing significant innovations, difficulties,
and prospects, as well as noting the technique's broader application in crop and lesser
species. The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method has been utilised successfully in
plants to boost agricultural productivity and stress tolerance.
Despite this, only a small number of medicinal plants have been altered using the
CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technique because to a lack of appropriate
transformation and regeneration techniques, and also a lack of comprehensive genome
and mRNA sequencing data. However, a variety of secondary metabolic activities in
plants (e.g. alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and saponin) altered
lately using CRISPR/Cas-editing through knocking out, knocking in, and point
mutations, modulation of gene expression, including targeted mutagenesis.