Plant breeding relies on the presence of genetic variation, which is generated by a random process of mutagenesis that acts on existing gene pools. This variation is then recombined into new forms at frequencies impacted by the local euchromatin and heterochromatin environment. The result is a genetic lottery where plant breeders face increasingly low odds of generating a “winning” plant genotype. Genome editing tools enable targeted manipulation of the genome, providing a means to increase genetic variation and enhancing the chances for plant breeding success. Editing can be applied in a targeted way, where known genetic variation that improves performance can be directly brought into lines of interest through either deletion or insertion. This empowers approaches that are traditionally difficult such as novel domestication and introgression of wild accessions into a germplasm pool. Furthermore, broader editing-mediated approaches such as recombination enhancement and targeted random mutagenesis bring novel ways of variation creation to the plant breeding toolbox. Continued development and application of plant genome editing tools will be needed to aid in meeting critical global crop improvement needs.

植物育种依赖于遗传变异的存在，遗传变异是由作用于现有基因库的随机诱变过程产生的。然后，这种变异以受局部常染色质和异染色质环境影响的频率重新组合成新形式。结果是一个基因彩票，植物育种者面临越来越低的产生“获胜”植物基因型的几率。基因组编辑工具能够对基因组进行有针对性的操作，提供一种增加遗传变异和增加植物育种成功机会的方法。可以有针对性地应用编辑，其中可以通过删除或插入直接将提高性能的已知遗传变异带入感兴趣的品系。这赋予了传统上困难的方法，例如新的驯化和将野生种质渗入种质库。此外，更广泛的编辑介导方法，如重组增强和靶向随机诱变，为植物育种工具箱带来了新的变异创造方法。需要继续开发和应用植物基因组编辑工具，以帮助满足关键的全球作物改良需求。