CRISPR-Based genome editing in pulses: current approaches, challenges, and future prospects

Legumes are the second most important food crop after cereals for the world population. It is a significant protein source for developing countries and integral to global food security. However, various agroecological constraints and biotic and abiotic factors often compromise the production of pulses. Legumes are long-term neglected crops worldwide and follow traditional breeding, leading to a time-consuming, labor-intensive, less economically feasible program associated with linkage drag. Recent sequencing attempts in the twenty-first century, with the development of an enormous repertoire of genetic and genomic resources, allowed scientists to accelerate the improvement of legumes with modern genome editing tools. One such promising tool is CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which has revolutionized and transformed the landscape of genetic engineering. The emergence of CRISPR/Cas systems has redefined precision breeding, offering unprecedented control over genome manipulation in legume crops. It has tremendous potential for crop improvement and can precisely make changes at genomic locations with incredible accuracy. Therefore, identifying the desired genes and their precise manipulation has enormous implications for legume crop improvement. This review will give an overview of the genome editing tools available for crop improvement and the efficiency of different transformation methods in legume crops. It will also discuss the current status of genome editing in legume crops, including challenges and future perspectives.