Advancing nutritional quality in oilseed crops through genome editing: a comprehensive review

Genome editing has emerged as a powerful approach to enhancing the nutritional quality of oilseed crops. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats case9 (CRISPR/Cas9) is the predominant editing tool, while transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and base editors are used less commonly. Key fatty acid desaturase genes such as FAD2 and FAD3 are prime targets because of their critical functions in fatty acid desaturation. This review summarizes recent progress in editing genes associated with oil composition and related traits across oilseed species. Visual data representations including, Sankey diagrams, heat maps, and crop-trait matrices illustrate shared editing priorities and emerging trait targets across crops. Despite its promise, genome editing still faces challenges in transformation efficiency, field-level validation, and regulatory acceptance. This review underscores the increasing impact of target gene editing on nutritional trait improvement and its potential to accelerate the development of healthier, more sustainable oilseed varieties.