Advances in gene editing for legume improvement: technologies, progress, and prospects

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Plant Genomics
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Legumes are essential protein sources facing increasing global demand.
• Enhancing legume yield, nutrition, and stress resilience is critical for food security.
• Advanced genetic technologies accelerate crop improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review major gene-editing technologies and their applications in key legume crops.
• To highlight the role of CRISPR/Cas9 and guide RNA design tools in legume improvement.
• To discuss future directions integrating AI in genome editing.

Main Methods:

• Review of gene-editing technologies: CRISPR/Cas9, TALENs, ZFNs, base editing, prime editing.
• Analysis of applications in soybean, cowpea, chickpea, groundnut, pea, and Medicago species.
• Emphasis on guide RNA design tools, particularly CRISPR-P.

Main Results:

• CRISPR/Cas9 is the most adopted gene-editing platform in legumes due to its efficiency and versatility.
• Next-generation sequencing and user-friendly online tools have improved CRISPR accessibility.
• CRISPR-P is identified as a widely used guide RNA design tool in legume research.

Conclusions:

• Gene editing significantly advances legume crop improvement for yield, nutrition, and resilience.
• Effective guide RNA design is fundamental for successful and precise genome editing.
• Future integration of AI and LLMs promises enhanced accuracy and precision in legume genome editing.