Most conventional and modern crop-improvement methods exploit natural or artificially induced genetic variations and require laborious characterization of the progenies of multiple generations derived from time-consuming genetic crosses. Genome-editing systems, in contrast, provide the means to rapidly modify genomes in a precise and predictable way, making it possible to introduce improvements directly into elite varieties. Here, we describe the range of applications available to agricultural researchers using existing genome-editing tools. In addition to providing examples of genome-editing applications in crop breeding, we discuss the technical and social challenges faced by breeders using genome-editing tools for crop improvement.

大多数常规和现代农作物改良方法利用自然或人工诱导的遗传变异，并需要费力地表征源自耗时的遗传杂交的多代后代。相比之下，基因组编辑系统提供了一种以精确且可预测的方式快速修改基因组的方法，从而有可能将改良直接引入到优良品种中。在这里，我们描述了使用现有的基因组编辑工具可用于农业研究人员的应用范围。除了提供基因组编辑在作物育种中的应用实例外，我们还将讨论使用基因组编辑工具进行农作物改良的育种者面临的技术和社会挑战。