Genome Editing in Ornamental Crops: Progress and Challenges

The improvement in quality of ornamental crops, including floral color, size, structure, aroma, shelf-life, and increase in stress resistance are the prime objectives of ornamental plant breeding. However, conventional breeding methods are time consuming and less efficient to attain the desirable traits. The advent of genome editing technologies such as meganucleases (MNs), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) provide an alternative strategy to modify the genome rapidly with higher efficiency and accuracy. Recently, the novel CRISPR variants, such as base editors and prime editors, confer transgene-free cultivars with reduced off-target effects. Additionally, the accessibility to whole genome sequences coupled with in-vitro transformation protocols aid the possibilities of improving commercial traits in ornamental plants. Hence, this chapter summarizes the current progress in genome editing of ornamental crops and briefs various improved traits. Furthermore, potential challenges associated with the use of genome editing tools for ornamental plants are also addressed.