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REVIEW article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Biotechnology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1449579

Synthetic Directed Evolution for Targeted Engineering of Plant Traits

Provisionally accepted
Ahad M. Kababji Ahad M. Kababji Haroon Butt Haroon Butt Magdy Mahfouz Magdy Mahfouz *
  • King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Improving crop traits requires genetic diversity, which allows breeders to select advantageous alleles of key genes. In species or loci that lack sufficient genetic diversity, synthetic directed evolution (SDE) can supplement natural variation, thus expanding the possibilities for trait engineering. In this review, we explore recent advances and applications of SDE for crop improvement, highlighting potential targets (coding sequences and cis-regulatory elements) and computational tools to enhance crop resilience and performance across diverse environments.Recent advancements in SDE approaches have streamlined the generation of variants and the selection processes; by leveraging these advanced technologies and principles, we can minimize concerns about host fitness and unintended effects, thus opening promising avenues for effectively enhancing crop traits.

    Keywords: CRISPR-Cas9, synthetic directed evolution, CRISPR-directed evolution, Rational protein design, trait engineering, crop breeding, Noncoding DNA, Regulatory elements

    Received: 15 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kababji, Butt and Mahfouz. 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: Magdy Mahfouz, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    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.