Application of CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing for Trait Improvement in Oil Palm

Genome-editing technology represents a potent tool for functional genomics to improve the quality and commercial value of oil palm, one of the world’s most important commercial oil crops. The availability of the oil palm genetic transformation system and the accessibility of the entire oil palm genome sequence data will revolutionise the technology to improve agricultural traits and create new plant varieties. This chapter highlights the application and recent progress of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9, commonly known as CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in oil palm. Their associated strategies and challenges to developing an improved crop with the addition of valuable traits with high precision and future utilisation potential are also discussed. CRISPR/Cas9 is the most recently developed and rapidly adopted targeted genome modification system. Comparing it to other genome-editing technologies such as transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), it has been shown to be more effective, specific, adaptable, straightforward, and multiplexed. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology enables the editing single to multiple genes to produce oil palm varieties with high-value-added fatty acids and novel agronomic traits. Such traits have always been of interest to the oil palm industry for ease of fruit harvesting, improve labour productivity, extend economic lifespan, and increase nutritional value in response to growing demand.