Wei Tang;Ao Tan

College of Arts and Science, East Carolina University, Greenville, USA;University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, US

Double-stranded DNA break;Genome editing;CRISPR system;Transcription activator-like effector nucleases;Zinc-finger nucleases;CRISPR/CAS9 SYSTEM;HOMOLOGOUS RECOMBINATION;DIRECTED MUTAGENESIS;DESIGNED NUCLEASES;CHLOROPLAST GENOME;MOLECULAR SCISSORS;RNA;EXPRESSION;TALE

Well-established targeted technologies to engineer genomes such as zinc-finger nuclease-based editing (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nuclease-based editing (TALEN), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and associated protein system-based editing (CRISPR/Cas) are proving to advance basic and applied research in numerous plant species. Compared with systems using ZFNs and TALENs, the most recently developed CRISPR/Cas system is more efficient due to its use of an RNA-guided nuclease to generate double-strand DNA breaks. To accelerate the applications of these technologies, we provide here a detailed overview of these systems, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each, summarize research advances made with these technologies in model and crop plants, and discuss their applications in plant functional genomics. Such targeted approaches for genetically modifying plants will benefit agricultural production in the future.