Status and Contribution of CRISPR/Cas9 Based Gene-Editing System in the Development of a Low-Immunogenic Wheat Variety

Gluten, a wheat protein, contains epitopes that trigger celiac disease (CD). So far, there is no treatment available for CD other than following a life-long, strict gluten-free diet (GFD). A very low-gluten or gluten-free wheat could provide an alternative treatment to CD. Till date, conventional plant breeding methods are not sufficient to produce celiac-safe wheat. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) is a versatile gene-editing system may efficiently edit the immunogenic gluten protein thereby producing a celiac-safe wheat variety. However, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing system has not been widely investigated to edit the wheat genome. Published literature available on various scientific platforms, that applied the CRISPR/Cas9 system to edit the wheat genome were explored. Only original research articles were included. Review articles, protocols, scientific presentations, and Ph.D. thesis were excluded. CRISPR/Cas9 is a highly specific gene-editing technology that can be used to efficiently edit the complex hexaploid wheat genome. It targets a specific wheat genome locus, delete an immunogenic gene and replace it with a preferred gene. CRISPR/Cas9 technology could be a breakthrough in providing an alternative treatment for CD. However, further studies are required to efficiently apply this gene-editing technology to develop a celiac-safe wheat variety.