Recent developments in CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing research for edible fungiculture

Fungiculture refers to the deliberate cultivation or agricultural practice involving the growth and management of fungi. The practice encompasses the intentional culture of diverse species of macrofungi, including mushrooms and truffles, within controlled habitats or under specified conditions, in order to fulfill human requirements especially for food purpose. As the global market for edible mushrooms grows quickly, it is becoming increasingly necessary to grow novel and improved strains of edible fungi. Growing and breeding edible fungi using traditional methods is both time-consuming and difficult. So, there is a need for evolving advanced techniques at a molecular level which can help breeding of edible fungi with much better efficiency. The CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated nuclease 9) system is one of the most effective techniques for accurately cutting and modifying the genomes of edible fungi. In this review, we discuss how genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 has been utilized in many edible fungal species such as Pleurotus ostreatus, Agaricus bisporus, Cordyceps militaris, Ganoderma lucidum, Flammulina filiformis, Lentinula edodes, and others for their target specific breeding. We also discuss the working mechanism of the above-mentioned system in these mushroom species, and also the advantages and limitations of using this system in mushrooms.