Plant Recombinant Gene Technology for Pest Control in the Twenty-First Century: From Simple Transgenesis to CRISPR/Cas

The current progress in genetic technologies (methodologies) allows to create crops with the modified genome to counter different pest species. Genome editing is the most popular and efficient approach to increase crop defense against harmful insects, mites, and nematodes. During the first decades of the twenty-first century, the methodology of pest control using plant recombinant technologies has evolved significantly. Toxins of bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were the first heterologous protective compounds introduced into the plants, and until now, these bacteria remain the main source of transgenes for pest control. Heterologous expression of plant proteins toxic to pests, such as lectins and protease inhibitors, was another popular strategy for increasing pest resistance in plants. RNA interference of pest genes achieved through RNA expression in plants recently has become the most studied and efficient approach in the area of crop pest protection. CRISPR/Cas-based genome modification systems as the most modern technologies for gene manipulation allow to knock out genes, create targeted genetic variation, and include precise insertion/deletion and single nucleotide changes. All these approaches are focused on targeting some physiological, biochemical, and behavioral systems of the pests. This chapter summarizes the progress in genome improvement of plants for protection against pests. We extensively reviewed the sum of research articles published between 2000 and 2022 reporting that successful transgenic and genome editing events proved to be efficient against a wide range of harmful pest species.