RNA interference (RNAi): Application in crop improvement: A review

Among those various recent biotechnological tools, RNA Interference (RNAi) has been playing important role in crop improvement. RNAi can be defined as the ability of exogenous or endogenous double stranded RNA to suppress the expression of the gene which corresponds to the sequence of double stranded RNA. RNAi has been extensively used in various species to suppress gene function and is a novel approach to modify the gene expression for better quality traits and nutritional improvement in different crops. If judiciously used, this technology may go a long way to narrow the gap through production of disease, insect and virus resistant, nutritionally rich and toxic-free crops. The technology that has been developed by the developed countries will be available to any lab including those in the developing countries, where work utilizing RNAi technology is either in progress or going to be launched shortly. Ultimately this kind of technology can be important to global food security and also to maintain sustainability.

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A Critical Review: Recent Advancements in the Use of CRISPR/Cas9 Technology to Enhance Crops and Alleviate Global Food Crises

Current Issues in Molecular Biology ◽

10.3390/cimb43030135 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 1950-1976

Author(s):

Adnan Rasheed ◽

Rafaqat Ali Gill ◽

Muhammad Umair Hassan ◽

Athar Mahmood ◽

Sameer Qari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Critical Review ◽

Crop Production ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Environmental Stresses ◽

Zinc Finger Nucleases ◽

Agricultural Crop ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Global Food

Genome editing (GE) has revolutionized the biological sciences by creating a novel approach for manipulating the genomes of living organisms. Many tools have been developed in recent years to enable the editing of complex genomes. Therefore, a reliable and rapid approach for increasing yield and tolerance to various environmental stresses is necessary to sustain agricultural crop production for global food security. This critical review elaborates the GE tools used for crop improvement. These tools include mega-nucleases (MNs), such as zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), and transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR). Specifically, this review addresses the latest advancements in the role of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome manipulation for major crop improvement, including yield and quality development of biotic stress- and abiotic stress-tolerant crops. Implementation of this technique will lead to the production of non-transgene crops with preferred characteristics that can result in enhanced yield capacity under various environmental stresses. The CRISPR/Cas9 technique can be combined with current and potential breeding methods (e.g., speed breeding and omics-assisted breeding) to enhance agricultural productivity to ensure food security. We have also discussed the challenges and limitations of CRISPR/Cas9. This information will be useful to plant breeders and researchers in the thorough investigation of the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to boost crops by targeting the gene of interest.

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Is Current Research on How Climate Change Impacts Global Food Security Really Objective?

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods10102342 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 2342

Author(s):

Wangang Liu ◽

Yiping Chen ◽

Xinhua He ◽

Ping Mao ◽

Hanwen Tian

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Food Security ◽

Field Research ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Hotspot Analysis ◽

Global Food Security ◽

The Impact ◽

Global Food

Global food insecurity is becoming more severe under the threat of rising global carbon dioxide concentrations, increasing population, and shrinking farmlands and their degeneration. We acquired the ISI Web of Science platform for over 31 years (1988–2018) to review the research on how climate change impacts global food security, and then performed cluster analysis and research hotspot analysis with VosViewer software. We found there were two drawbacks that exist in the current research. Firstly, current field research data were defective because they were collected from various facilities and were hard to integrate. The other drawback is the representativeness of field research site selection as most studies were carried out in developed countries and very few in developing countries. Therefore, more attention should be paid to developing countries, especially some African and Asian countries. At the same time, new modified mathematical models should be utilized to process and integrate the data from various facilities and regions. Finally, we suggested that governments and organizations across the world should be united to wrestle with the impact of climate change on food security.

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RNA Interference and CRISPR/Cas Gene Editing for Crop Improvement: Paradigm Shift towards Sustainable Agriculture

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10091914 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 1914

Author(s):

Meenakshi Rajput ◽

Khushboo Choudhary ◽

Manish Kumar ◽

V. Vivekanand ◽

Aakash Chawade ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rna Interference ◽

Sustainable Agriculture ◽

Gene Editing ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Regulatory Approach ◽

Short Palindromic Repeat ◽

Increasing Demand ◽

Interfering Rna

With the rapid population growth, there is an urgent need for innovative crop improvement approaches to meet the increasing demand for food. Classical crop improvement approaches involve, however, a backbreaking process that cannot equipoise with increasing crop demand. RNA-based approaches i.e., RNAi-mediated gene regulation and the site-specific nuclease-based CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene editing has made advances in the efficient targeted modification in many crops for the higher yield and resistance to diseases and different stresses. In functional genomics, RNA interference (RNAi) is a propitious gene regulatory approach that plays a significant role in crop improvement by permitting the downregulation of gene expression by small molecules of interfering RNA without affecting the expression of other genes. Gene editing technologies viz. the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) have appeared prominently as a powerful tool for precise targeted modification of nearly all crops’ genome sequences to generate variation and accelerate breeding efforts. In this regard, the review highlights the diverse roles and applications of RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 system as powerful technologies to improve agronomically important plants to enhance crop yields and increase tolerance to environmental stress (biotic or abiotic). Ultimately, these technologies can prove to be important in view of global food security and sustainable agriculture.

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8.1. ДИНАМИКА ОСНОВНЫХ ФАКТОРОВ МИРОВОГО ПРОДОВОЛЬСТВЕННОГО КРИЗИСА В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОМ ПРОЦЕССЕ

Audit and Financial Analysis ◽

10.38097/afa.2020.79.34.025 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

R.R. Ablaev ◽

T.A. Kokodey ◽

T.I. Lomachenko ◽

T.I. Lomachenko

Keyword(s):

Developed Countries ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Food Shortages ◽

The Usa ◽

Excessive Consumption ◽

Main Factors ◽

The Developed Countries ◽

Global Food ◽

Global Food Crisis

Проведен качественный и количественный анализ динамики основных факторов продовольственного кризиса в историческом процессе и составлен прогноз динамики дальнейшего развития с использованием методов и средств эконометрического моделирования. Продемонстрирован факт, что в развитых странах Европы и США отсутствует проблема нехватки продовольствия, а, напротив, наблюдается избыточное потребление гражданами продуктов питания. Но существуют страны, в которых проблема недостатка продовольственных товаров актуальна. Затронута проблема неравномерного распределения продовольствия и последствий, вытекающих из возникшей ситуации.Qualitative and quantitative analysis for the dynamics of the main factors of the global food crisis in history is conducted. Projections of the further tendencies are made using econometrics modeling means. The fact is demonstrated that in the developed countries of Europe and the USA there is no problem of food shortages, but, on the contrary, there is an excessive consumption of food by citizens. But there are countries in which the problem of food shortages is relevant. The problem of uneven distribution of food and the consequences arising from the situation have been raised.

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Aquaculture role in global food security with nutritional value: a review

Translational Animal Science ◽

10.1093/tas/txz012 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 903-910 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jangampalli Adi Pradeepkiran

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Vital Role ◽

Animal Protein ◽

Poor People ◽

Human Welfare ◽

Global Food Security ◽

National Economic ◽

Global Food ◽

Global Food Supply

Abstract Food security is the main path to develop the socioeconomic status in any country in the world to defeat malnutrition. The present scenario in an under developed countries are still facing this problem. Hence the human nutrition deficiencies focus on the importance of animal protein in their regular diet. To overcome this problem, fisheries contribute a significant amount of animal protein to the diets of people worldwide. The aquatic animals are the highly nutritious and cheapest protein sources, which serves as a valuable supplement in diets by providing essential vitamins, proteins, micronutrients, and minerals, for the poor people. Aquaculture is playing a vital role in the developing countries in national economic development, and global food supply. Food and agricultural organization (FAO) declared that this aquaculture has the continuous potentiality to create a developmental goals for the country economy and better human welfare.

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The Dioscorea Genus (Yam)—An Appraisal of Nutritional and Therapeutic Potentials

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods9091304 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (9) ◽

pp. 1304

Author(s):

Jude E. Obidiegwu ◽

Jessica B. Lyons ◽

Cynthia A. Chilaka

Keyword(s):

Developed Countries ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Pharmaceutical Application ◽

Nutritional Components ◽

Dioscorea Species ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Developed Countries ◽

Nutritional Benefits ◽

Global Food ◽

Orphan Crop

The quest for a food secure and safe world has led to continuous effort toward improvements of global food and health systems. While the developed countries seem to have these systems stabilized, some parts of the world still face enormous challenges. Yam (Dioscorea species) is an orphan crop, widely distributed globally; and has contributed enormously to food security especially in sub-Saharan Africa because of its role in providing nutritional benefits and income. Additionally, yam has non-nutritional components called bioactive compounds, which offer numerous health benefits ranging from prevention to treatment of degenerative diseases. Pharmaceutical application of diosgenin and dioscorin, among other compounds isolated from yam, has shown more prospects recently. Despite the benefits embedded in yam, reports on the nutritional and therapeutic potentials of yam have been fragmented and the diversity within the genus has led to much confusion. An overview of the nutritional and health importance of yam will harness the crop to meet its potential towards combating hunger and malnutrition, while improving global health. This review makes a conscious attempt to provide an overview regarding the nutritional, bioactive compositions and therapeutic potentials of yam diversity. Insights on how to increase its utilization for a greater impact are elucidated.

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Global Food Security under COVID-19: Comparison and Enlightenment of Policy Responses in Different Countries

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods10112850 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 2850

Author(s):

Xiaoyu Jiang ◽

Yangfen Chen ◽

Jieyong Wang

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Food Security ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Food Distribution ◽

Policy Framework ◽

Security Risk ◽

Security Risks ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Intervention Measures ◽

Global Food

(1) Background: COVID-19 has exacerbated global food security risks, and the global food supply chain, especially in developing countries, has become more vulnerable. (2) Methods: In this paper, we discussed the current security of global food, response measures, and potential impacts, and analyzed the characteristics and evolution of food security policies in four representative countries: China, Italy, Malawi, Argentina. (3) Results: The results showed that most countries give priority to ensuring food access. Most underdeveloped countries adopt humanitarian intervention measures such as food distribution and transfer payments, while developed countries tend to implement development intervention policies such as supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises and guaranteeing employment. (4) Conclusions: Despite the ample global supply, developing countries still face long-term food security risks, highlighting the importance of strengthening global food security governance and risk management. Finally, a food security risk response policy framework was built to provide suggestions for effectively handling COVID-19 and similar public health emergencies in the future.

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The Development of Herbicide Resistance Crop Plants Using CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing

Genes ◽

10.3390/genes12060912 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 912

Author(s):

Huirong Dong ◽

Yong Huang ◽

Kejian Wang

Keyword(s):

Herbicide Resistance ◽

Crop Production ◽

Gene Editing ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Herbicide Resistant ◽

Transgenic Breeding ◽

Short Palindromic Repeat ◽

Global Food ◽

Huge Challenge

The rapid increase in herbicide-resistant weeds creates a huge challenge to global food security because it can reduce crop production, causing considerable losses. Combined with a lack of novel herbicides, cultivating herbicide-resistant crops becomes an effective strategy to control weeds because of reduced crop phytotoxicity, and it expands the herbicidal spectrum. Recently developed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas)-mediated genome editing techniques enable efficiently targeted modification and hold great potential in creating desired plants with herbicide resistance. In the present review, we briefly summarize the mechanism responsible for herbicide resistance in plants and then discuss the applications of traditional mutagenesis and transgenic breeding in cultivating herbicide-resistant crops. We mainly emphasize the development and use of CRISPR/Cas technology in herbicide-resistant crop improvement. Finally, we discuss the future applications of the CRISPR/Cas system for developing herbicide-resistant crops.

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Microbial-Based Double-Stranded RNA Production to Develop Cost-Effective RNA Interference Application for Insect Pest Management

International Journal of Insect Science ◽

10.1177/1179543319840323 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 117954331984032 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Seung-Joon Ahn ◽

Kelly Donahue ◽

Youngho Koh ◽

Robert R. Martin ◽

Man-Yeon Choi

Keyword(s):

Rna Interference ◽

Pest Management ◽

Production Efficiency ◽

Management Practices ◽

Insect Pest ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Insect Pest Management ◽

Double Stranded Rna ◽

Phenol Extraction ◽

Rnai Technology

RNA interference (RNAi) is a convenient tool to identify and characterize biological functions in organisms. Recently, it has become an alternative to chemical insecticides as a biologically based control agent. This promising technology has the potential to avoid many problems associated with conventional chemical insecticides. In order for RNAi application to be practical for field use, a major hurdle is the development of a cost-effective system of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) production for a large quantity of dsRNA. A handful of research reports has demonstrated microbial-based dsRNA production using L4440 vector and HT115 (DE3) Escherichia coli for application to vertebrate and invertebrate systems. However, the dsRNA yield, production efficiency, and biological purity from this in vitro system is still unclear. Thus, our study detailed biochemical and molecular tools for large-scale dsRNA production using the microbial system and investigated the production efficiency and yield of crude and purified dsRNAs. An unrelated insect gene, green fluorescent protein (GFP), and an insect neuropeptide gene, pyrokinin (PK) identified from Drosophila suzukii, were used to construct the recombinant L4440 to be expressed in the HT115 (DE3) cell. A considerable amount of dsRNA, 19.5 µg/mL of liquid culture, was isolated using ultrasonic disruption followed by phenol extraction. The sonication method was further evaluated to extract crude dsRNA without the additional phenol extraction and nuclease treatments and also to reduce potential bacterial viability. The results suggest that the ultrasonic method saved time and costs to isolate crude dsRNA directly from large volumes of cell culture without E coli contamination. We investigated whether the injection of PK dsRNA into flies resulted in increased adult mortality, but it was not statistically significant at 95% confidence level. In this study, the microbial-based dsRNA production has potential for applied RNAi technology to complement current insect pest management practices.

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Reconciling Techno-simplicity and Eco-complexity for future food security

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.7562.1 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 1507

Author(s):

Santiago L. Poggio ◽

Sarina Macfadyen ◽

David A. Bohan

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Crop Production ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Landscape Complexity ◽

Ecosystem Integrity ◽

Ecological Intensification ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Yield Gaps ◽

Global Food

Ecological intensification has been proposed as a paradigm for ensuring global food security while preserving biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Ecological intensification was originally coined to promote precise site-specific farming practices aimed at reducing yield gaps, while avoiding negative environmental impacts (techno-simplicity). Recently, it has been extended to stress the importance of landscape complexity to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services (eco-complexity). While these perspectives on ecological intensification may seem distinct, they are not incompatible and should be interwoven to create more comprehensive and practical solutions. Here, we argue that designing cropping systems to be more diverse, across space and time would be an effective route to accomplish environmentally-friendly intensification of crop production. Such a novel approach will require better integration of knowledge at the landscape level for increasing agro-biodiversity (focused on interventions outside fields) with strategies diversifying cropping systems to manage weeds and pests (focused on interventions inside fields).

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