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Prime Editing for Crop Improvement: A Systematic Review of Optimization Strategies and Advanced Applications
Shuangrui Tian1, Lan Yao1, Yuhong Zhang1
1College of Food Science & Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Genes
|August 28, 2025
Summary
Prime editing (PE) offers precise crop genetic improvement but faces efficiency challenges. This review details four key strategies—component engineering, enhanced delivery, process optimization, and marker enrichment—to overcome these limitations and advance PE applications in plants.
Area of Science:
- Agricultural Science
- Molecular Biology
- Biotechnology
Background:
- Prime editing (PE) is a versatile "search-and-replace" genome editing tool with significant potential for crop genetic improvement.
- Low and variable editing efficiency has been a major bottleneck hindering the widespread application of PE technology in plants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and analyze strategies for enhancing prime editing efficiency and scope in crops.
- To provide a theoretical framework and practical guidance for future research and application of PE in plant breeding.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, searching Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar up to June 2025.
- Inclusion of 38 primary research articles focusing on PE optimization in crops.
- Analysis of four major optimization strategies: core component engineering, expression/delivery enhancement, reaction process improvement, and edited event enrichment.
Main Results:
- Early PE systems (e.g., PE2) showed versatility in edits but suffered from variable efficiency across species and targets.
- Optimization strategies have successfully broadened PE's targeting scope with novel Cas9 variants and enabled large DNA insertions/rearrangements.
- PE technology application in plants has progressed from validation to systematic optimization and advanced functional expansion.
Conclusions:
- Significant advancements have been made in overcoming PE efficiency limitations through diverse engineering and application strategies.
- Synergistic integration of optimization strategies is crucial for efficient, precise, and predictable PE application in diverse crops.
- This review offers valuable insights for advancing PE technology in crop science and breeding.
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