Harnessing the potential of CRISPR/Cas system for enhancing virus resistance in plants: Targets, strategies, and challenges

Plant viruses pose significant threats to agricultural systems, jeopardizing food security worldwide with a growing population. Owing to ineffective chemical interventions, the use of molecular tools to engineer adaptive immunity has emerged as a viable solution. Fortunately, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system, known for its ability to induce precise and targeted changes in the plant genome, has expedited the development of virus-resistant crops. CRISPR/Cas technology enables the engineering of plant viral resistance by modifying host factors that are crucial for viral infection (plant-mediated resistance) or by targeting the viral genome itself (virus-mediated resistance). This review explores potential gene targets within both host and viral genomes that have been precisely modified using the CRISPR/Cas system to enhance virus resistance in plants. In addition, this review critically examines the challenges that lie ahead in harnessing the full potential of the CRISPR/Cas system for the production of transgene-free crops capable of exhibiting broad-spectrum resistance against plant viruses.