ROLE OF CRISPR/Cas IN CONTROLLING BIOTIC STRESS IN BLACKPEPPER

Abstract

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), the king of spices is one of the most important traditional spices cultivated all over world. Over the past 15 years, there has been a noticeable decline in crop production and area due to biotic and abiotic stress. Despite the efforts made to develop and select a number of black pepper varieties with high yield potential and disease tolerance, the situation has not improved in a decade. Quick wilt caused by Phytopthora capsici, one of the major soil-borne fungi can destroy black pepper crops and cause heavy loss in the plantations. All plant parts are vulnerable to infection, which results in significant decrease in gene expression, thereby inducing heavy mortality rate. Different resistant varieties are raised based on different breeding programs to control the disease and helps in maintaining black pepper production. Such labor-intensive, unfocused breeding initiatives that take so much time and effort cannot keep up with the needs for higher crop production. Currently, a novel gene editing technique known as the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas technology, has succeeded in enhancing crop quality that increase yield, quality as well as to improve resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The main objective of this review is to identify the role of CRISPR/Cas technology in controlling the quick wilt fungi by genome editing. Recent improvements in CRISPR/Cas genome editing allow for effective targeted modification in the majority of crops, which promises to hasten crop development, especially in commercially important crop like black pepper.