Editorial: New Genome Editing Tools and Resources: Enabling Gene Discovery and Functional Genomics

Genome editing technologies are revolutionizing molecular biology research and offer huge potential for development of crops that could help meet the challenge of providing sufficient food, sustainably and under increasingly challenging environmental conditions. The ability to make precise changes in plant genomes, together with the increased genomic resources now available, give unprecedented opportunities to develop crops with desired traits much faster than with traditional techniques. Although there are a range of genome editing technologies available, the one that is currently most widely used, and has generated the most excitement, is CRISPR/Cas. Despite the great progress of CRISPR/Cas-induced genome editing in plants, two main challenges persist: delivery of CRISPR reagents and precise genome editing. The papers in this research topic all feature CRISPR-based systems and highlight some of the latest advances in this fast-moving area including in delivery and precise genome editing technologies.