Genome-editing techniques are promising tools in plant breeding. To facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the use of genome editing, EU-SAGE developed an interactive, publicly accessible online database of genome-edited crop plants as described in peer-reviewed scientific publications.
The aim of the database is to inform interested stakeholder communities in a transparent manner about the latest evidence about the use of genome editing in crop plants. Different elements including the plant species, traits, techniques, and applications can be filtered in this database.
Regarding the methodology, a literature search in the bibliographic databases and web pages of governmental agencies was conducted using predefined queries in English. Identifying research articles in other languages was not possible due to language barriers. Patents were not screened.
Peer-reviewed articles were screened for relevance and were included in the database based on pre-defined criteria. The main criterium is that the research article should describe a research study of any crop plant in which a trait has been introduced that is relevant from an agricultural and/or food/feed perspective. The database does neither give information on the stage of development of the crop plant, nor on the existence of the intention to develop the described crop plants to be marketed.
This database will be regularly updated. Please contact us via the following webpage in case you would like to inform us about a new scientific study of crops developed for market-oriented agricultural production as a result of genome editing

Genome Editing Technique

Displaying 39 results

Traits related to biotic stress tolerance

Fungal resistance: decreased susceptibility to Ustilago maydis, causing smut. The pathogen causes galls on all aerial parts of the plant, impacting crop yield and quality.
(Pathi et al., 2020)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Germany
Fungal resistance: improved sheath blight resistance. Sheath blight disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani AGI-1A and is one of the three major rice diseases. Sheath blight disease can cause severe yield losses.
(Cao et al., 2021)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Agricultural College of Yangzhou University
Jiangsu Yanjiang Institute of Agricultural Science
Yangzhou University
Testing Center of Yangzhou University
Ministry of Agriculture
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Institutes of Agricultural Science and Technology Development, China
BASF, Germany
Viral resistance: Increased resistance to the barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV), which can cause yield losses as high as 50% upon infection.
(Hoffie et al., 2022)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)
Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Germany
Fungal resistance: Reduced susceptibility to Verticillium longisporum, fungal pathogen that causes stem striping in Brassica napus and leads to huge yield losses.
(Ye et al., 2024)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Institut für Zuckerrübenforschung
Hohenlieth-Hof, NPZ Innovation GmbH, Germany
Aswan University, Egypt
Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China
Fungal resistance: resistance to Oidium neolycopersici, causing powdery mildew.
(Nekrasov et al., 2017)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany
Norwich Research Park, UK
Bacterial resistance: improved resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae, which causes bacterial blight, a devastating rice disease resulting in yield losses.
(Oliva et al., 2019)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
International Rice Research Institute, Philippines
University of Missouri
University of Florida
Iowa State University
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, USA
Université Montpellier, France
Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Nagoya University, Japan
Viral resistance: increased resistance to infection with the potato virus Y (PVY) and tolerance to salt and osmotic stress. PVY is one of the most economically important potato pathogens
(Makhotenko et al., 2019)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Russia Moscow State University, Russia
Doka Gene Technologies Ltd, USA
Fungal resistance: enhanced resistance against rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici and powdery mildew caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici., while also increasing yield.
(Liu et al., 2024)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Southwest University
Yangtze University, China
University of Cologne, Germany
University of Maryland
Fungal resistance: reduced susceptibility to Verticillium longisporum, a pathogen causing Verticillium stem striping. No fungicide treatments are currently available to control this disease.
(Pröbsting et al., 2020)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Institut für Zuckerrübenforschung
NPZ Innovation GmbH, Germany
Fungal resistance: increased resistance to both biotrophic and necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungi, Bipolaris spot blotch and Fusarium root rot.
(Galli et al., 2022)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Justus Liebig University, Germany
Bacterial resistance: Strong resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae, causing bacterial blight, a devastating rice disease resulting in yield losses.
(Wang et al., 2017)
SDN1
TALENs
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Viral resistance: reduced cotton leaf curl viral (CLCuV) load with asymptomatic plants. <br /> CLCuV causes a very devastating and prevalent disease. It causes huge losses to textile and other industries.
(Shakoor et al., 2023)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of the Punjab
University of Gujrat, Pakistan
Pacific Biosciences
CureVac Manufacturing GmbH, Germany
Viral resistance: Resistance to Potato Virus Y (PVY), one of the most devastating viral pathogens causing substantial harvest losses.
(Zhan et al., 2019)

CRISPR/Cas
Hubei University
Huazhong Agricultural University, China
Max‐Planck‐Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Germany
Visualization of the early stages of Cassava bacterial blight (CBB) infection in vivo. CBB is caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. Manihotis.
( Veley et al., 2021 )
SDN2
CRISPR/Cas
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, USA
National Root Crops Research Institute, Nigeria
Viral resistance: Improved resistance to yellow leaf curl virus, a virus responsible for heavy yield losses for chili peper production.
(Kurniawati et al., 2020)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Institut Pertanian Bogor
Balai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Bioteknologi dan Sumber Daya Genetik Pertanian, Indonesia

Traits related to abiotic stress tolerance

Increased salt-tolerance.
( Antonova et al., 2024 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE)
N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR)
Institute of Cytology and Genetics (ICG), Russia

Traits related to improved food/feed quality

Reduced glucosinolate levels. Glucosinolates are anti-nutrients that can cause reduced performance and impairment of kidney and liver functions of livestock.
( Hölzl et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Bonn
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Germany
Improved kafirin digestibility, which increases the grain nutritional value.
( Elkonin et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Federal Centre of Agriculture Research of South-East Region
Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics – Subdivision of the Ufa Federal Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Modified composition: accumulation of fivefold more starch than WT leaves, and more sucrose as well. Architectural changes
(Bezrutczyk et al., 2018)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Science, USA
Glossy sheat phenotype.
( Gerasimova et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR)
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany
Reduction of phytic acid (PA) in seeds. PA has adverse effects on essential mineral absorption and thus is considered as an anti-nutritive for monogastric animals.
( Sashidhar et al., 2020 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany
Improved digestibility of kafirins, which increases the grain nutritional value.
( Elkonin et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Federal Centre of Agriculture Research of South-East Region
Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Russia
Removing the major allergen to tackle food allergies.
( Assou et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Leibniz Universität Hannover
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Traits related to increased plant yield and growth

Early flowering. Day-light sensitivity limited the geographical range of cultivation.
( Soyk et al., 2016 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
Université Paris-Scalay, France
Altered spike architecture.
( de Souza Moraes et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Norwich Research Park, UK
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Germany
Root growth angle regulation, among the most important determinants of root system architecture. Root growth angle controls water uptake capacity, stress resilience, nutrient use efficiency and thus yield of crop plants.
( Kirschner et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Bonn
University of Cologne
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research Gatersleben
Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany
University of Bologna, Italy

Control grain size and seed coat color.
( Tra et al., 2021 )

BE
International Rice Research Institute, Philippines
Dahlem Center of Plant Sciences Freie Universität, Germany
Synthetic Biology, Biofuel and Genome Editing R&
D Reliance Industries Ltd, India
Increased water use efficiency, a promising approach for achieving sustainable crop production in changing climate scenarios.
( Blankenagel et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Technical University of Munich
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
Helmholtz Center Munich
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Induced erect leaf habit and shoot growth for a more efficient light penetration into lower canopy layers.
( Fladung et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Germany
Increased shatter resistance to avoid seed loss during mechanical harvest.
( Braatz et al., 2017 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany
Increased yield: plants produced more tillers and grains than azygous wild-type controls and the total yield was increased up to 15 per cent.
(Holubova et al., 2018)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Palacký University
Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Czech Republic
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Germany
Combine agronomically desirable traits with useful traits present in wild lines. Threefold increase in fruit size and a tenfold increase in fruit number. Fruit lycopene accumulation is improved by 500% compared with the widely cultivated S. lycopersicum.
( Zsögön et al., 2018 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Universidade Federal de Viçosa
Universidade de São Paulo Paulo, Brazil
University of Minnesota, USA
Universität Münster, Germany
Increased seed oil content (SOC). SOC is a major determinant of yield and quality.
( Karunarathna et al., 2020 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany
Zhejiang University, China
Control meristem size to increase fruit yield.
( Yuste-Lisbona et al., 2020 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Universidad de Almería
Universitat Politècnica de València–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Spain
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Germany
Université Paris-Saclay, France
Increased water use efficiency without growth reductions in well-watered conditions.
( Blankenagel et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Technical University of Munich
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
German Research Center for Environmental Health
KWS SAAT SE &
Co.KGaA
Université Technique de Munich
Heinrich Heine University, Germany
LEPSE - Écophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress environnementaux, France

Traits related to industrial utilization

Confer male and female sterility to prevent the risk of trasgene flow from transgenic plants to their wild relatives.
( Shinoyama et al., 2020 )
SDN1
TALENs
Fukui Agricultural Experiment Station
Institute of Agrobiological Sciences
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
Yokohama City University, Japan
Altai State University, Russia
Nicotine-free tobacco.
( Schachtsiek et al., 2019 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
TU Dortmund University, Germany

Traits related to product color/flavour

Increased content of phenylacetaldehyde, sucrose and fructose, which are major contributors to flavor in many foods, including tomato.
( Li et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Florida, USA
Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany
Colour shift. The poinsettia belongs to most economically important potted ornamental plants. Customers are willing to pay higher prices for unusual varieties.
( Nitarska et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Technische Universität Wien, Austria
Klemm+Sohn GmbH &
Co
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany