Since the first application of CRISPR-gene editing in plant research a decade ago, this transformative technology has been used to study functions of plant genes. It has also been used to engineer plants to improve their agronomic traits including metabolic profile, abiotic stress tolerance and disease resistance. Plant diseases can be caused by pathogenic microorganisms including fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes. CRISPR-based gene editing, particularly CRISPR-based mutagenesis, has been applied to disrupt the interactions between host plants with their specific pathogenic microorganisms and produce disease resistant plants.

Most of the gene-edited, disease resistant plants produced thus far are those that are resistant to obligate fungi such as powdery mildew and downy mildew pathogens. The knowledge of the intimate interactions between these obligate pathogens with their host plants has provided ideal targets for CRISPR-based editing. However, plants are infected by many non-obligate and hemibiotrophic pathogens. Each plant-pathogen interaction is unique. Plants defend themselves against pathogens by invoking innate or induced immunities with many well-studied mechanisms including the salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) pathways. Targeting host factors or genes in these signalling pathways by CRISPR-gene editing or CRISPR-activation is an engineering method to improve plant disease resistance. CRISPR-activation has not been widely used to induce plant resistance against pathogens. Furthermore, there have been much fewer examples of CRISPR-engineering plant resistance against pathogenic bacteria, viruses and nematodes.

This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review, Perspective and Method articles on:

• Engineering plant disease resistance by CRISPR-editing of host genes/factors
• Engineering plant disease resistance by CRISPR-activation of host genes/factors
• CRISPR-editing plants against plant fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes
• CRISPR-editing model plants to elucidate disease resistance mechanisms
• Development of transgene-free and disease resistant crop plants by CRISPR-gene editing or CRISPR-activation

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CRISPR-Gene Editing to Improve Plant Disease Resistance