Gene Editing in Plants

This book is a collection of information about applying CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing in plants. The main focus of this book is to address the recent advances and future prospects of CRISPR-Cas technology in crops.

Genome editing technology is important because it can be used to improve plant traits. The earlier genome-engineering tools, zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), and TAL effector nucleases (TALENs) are complicated to design and not flexible. The novel genome editor, CRISPR-Cas systems, has advantages over ZFNs and TALENs. The advantages are simple and easy to design precision in targeting and efficiency. Due to its precision and simplicity, the CRISPR-Cas technology has rapidly become the most popular genome-editing platform in life-science fields. CRISPR-Cas technology has been used widely for human gene therapy to treat diseases and for plant breeding programs for crop improvement.

This book is of interest and useful to genome-editing professionals, plant breeders, horticulturists, field-level extension workers, nurserymen, planters, ecologists, and valuable source of reference to the relevant researchers.

Auteur

Dr. Ashwani Kumar

Dr. Ashwani Kumar Born (1946) received BSc at Agra University and MSc (Botany) at University of Rajasthan. He was awarded Gold Medal for standing first in order of merit. His PhD (1971) was under supervision of Professor H.C. Arya and post-doctoral with Professor Dr. K-H. Neumann, and later on with Professor Dr. Sven Schubert at Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany, with Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. His botanist father Professor Swami Dayal Tewari (MSc in Botany) was his first teacher. Professor Ashwani Kumar was also selected in Indian Administrative Services (IAS: IPS) (1972), but he opted a career in Botany being his family subject. His wife Dr. Vijay R. Kumar is also Professor of Botany. He was appointed as Assistant Professor in 1969, Associate Professor in 1985, and Full Professor from 1986 to 2007. Then he was Adjunct Professor until 2016. During this period, he held many important administrative andresearch positions such as Head of Department of Botany and Coordinator SAP (1995-1998), Director, Life Sciences, 2001-2004, Director of Central Library and Information Science (2000-2005), Member Senate, Research Board, Convener Board of Studies Botany and Biotechnology, VC nominee for the Academic Council of MDS University, Ajmer and VC nominee for governing body of Subodh PG College Jaipur. Member governing body Academic Staff College, University of Rajasthan Jaipur, Member Board of studies and Academic Council of several Universities, Advisory committee on Biotechnology, and Medicinal Plant Board Government of Rajasthan, member selection committees of Rajasthan and Himachal Public Service Commissions. He along with members of COC introduced Integrated Biotechnology 5 year course in Rajasthan. In recognition of his research contributions, Dr. Kumar was awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for 1977-1979, with several resumption of fellowships until 2017, British Council Visitorship, UK (1986); Visiting Professorship at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Japan (1999-2000); Toyama Prefectural University Japan (2011); and INSA-DFG Visiting Professorship at Germany, 1997. He holds diploma in German language and has certificate in French language. His area of research include photosynthesis in vitro and in vivo, biotic and abiotic resistance, ethno botany, bioenergy and presently understanding salinity resistance in maize. He has also carried out research projects granted by UGC, USDAICAR, MNES, CSIR, DST, DBT, and FACT. He has active interactions with scientists at University of California and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, University of Laval, Canada, and Wageningen University, Netherlands. He visited various universities in UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal for scientific interactions. He attended large number of national and international conferences as invited speaker and served as chair or co-chair inInternational Botanical Conference, Berlin and EU Biomass conferences. He has published 220 research papers in national and international journals and 23 books, of which 10 books are authored and 13 edited from reputed publishers such as Springer and IK. He is member of editorial board of Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy. He has guided 39 research students to PhD at University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. He is an elected Fellow of Botanical Society, Fellow of Psychopathological Society, Fellow of Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Fellow of Mendelian Association, Fellow of Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacology, and Fellow of Indian Fern Society. He has also published a total of 16 books including Plant Cell and Tissue Culture--A Tool in Biotechnology: Basics and Application and edited a book Working with Ferns: Issues and Applications with Helena Fernandez and Maria Angeles Revilla both by Springer. He also has 14 books mainly in the field of biotechnology to his credit. He has been a consultant in World Bank Project sanctioned to SPRI-HPPI, President Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (India chapter), and presently President Indian Botanical Society. He received V. Puri Medal as Botanist and Teacher's Excellence Award of CEE in 2015. He was President Society for Promotion of Plant Science for 2021-2022. He is Editor in chief of UGC care listed Journal of Plant Science Research and International Journal of Life Sciences.

Dr. Sudipti Arora

Dr. Sudipti Arora is an Environmental Biotechnology Research Scientist and Assistant Director at Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology in Jaipur. With specialization in waste management, she holds a patent on nature-based wastewater treatment solution by Vermifiltration technology. She is also the founder of "Prakrit: a Centre of excellence in Environmental Biotechnology" and serves as the Director of the NGO, Prakrit Sustainable Integrated Foundation. The organization's mission is to provide transformative education and innovative solutions to drive the planet towards sustainability in support of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Dr. Sudipti Arora earned her Ph.D. from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and her master's degree in environmental engineering from. Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur She has also served as Guest faculty in MNIT, Jaipur from 2015-2016. She is an active member of the many prestigious organizations such as, International Water Association, Indian water works association IWWA, BRSI, Inner Wheel Club Jaipur East, Ficci-Flo, Indian Women Network (IWN), CII Rajasthan Chapter, Indian Society for the study of reproduction and fertility (ISSRF), and International Worm Based Sanitation Alliance (IWBA) to name a few. Besides, she is a co-chair of committee on Environment, Climate Change & Water, ASSOCHAM Rajasthan state Development council for FY 2023-24, which proves her leadership potential & great contributions towards society. She also holds executive positions for IWN and IITR Rajasthan Alumni Chapter.

Currently, she is involved in 3 funded projects (funded by DST & SERB, GOI) and have completed 3 national & International projects in the past. Her recent projects in SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based epidemiology research from India with other Indian, UK and Australian international partners through Global challenge research funds (GCRF 2020) has highlighted her commitment to the field. She is in the committee for National COVID-19 Wastewater surveillance consortium, by INSACOG.

Dr. Arora is also involved in an Indo-European project titled "Identifying best available technologies for decentralized wastewater treatment and resource recovery for India (Saraswati 2.0)," funded by DST, GOI.

Additionally, she is a part of an integrated technology in…