The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
MINI REVIEW article
Front. Genome Ed.
Sec. Genome Editing in Plants
Volume 7 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2025.1537148
This article is part of the Research Topic Genome Editing for Plant Immunity Research: From Understanding Multidimensional Regulation of Immune Responses Towards Breeding Disease-Resistant Crop Plants Resilient to Climate Changes View all articles
Engineering tomato disease resistance by manipulating susceptibility genes
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of New Hampshire, Durham, North Carolina, United States
- 2 Wuxi Advanced Therapeutics, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Various pathogens severely threaten tomato yield and quality. Advances in understanding plant-pathogen interactions have revealed the intricate roles of resistance (R) and susceptibility (S) genes in determining plant immunity. While R genes provide targeted pathogen resistance, they are often vulnerable to pathogen evolution.Conversely, S genes offer a promising avenue for developing broad-spectrum and durable resistance through targeted gene editing. Recent breakthroughs in CRISPR/Cas-based technologies have revolutionized the manipulation of plant genomes, enabling precise modification of S genes to enhance disease resistance in tomato without compromising growth or quality. However, the utilization of the full potential of this technique is challenging due to the complex plant-pathogen interactions and current technological limitations. This review highlights key advances in using gene editing tools to dissect and engineer tomato S genes for improved immunity. We discuss how S genes influence pathogen entry, immune suppression, and nutrient acquisition, and how their targeted editing has conferred resistance to bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens. Furthermore, we address the challenges associated with growth-defense trade-offs and propose strategies, such as hormonal pathway modulation and precise regulatory edits, to overcome these limitations. This review underscores the potential of CRISPR-based approaches to transform tomato breeding, paving the way for sustainable production of disease-resistant cultivars amidst escalating global food security challenges.
Keywords: CRISPR, Crop Improvement, Immunity, susceptibility gene, Tomato
Received: 30 Nov 2024; Accepted: 21 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Mandal, Rahman and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Duoduo Wang, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 03824, North Carolina, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.