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 38 results

Traits related to biotic stress tolerance

Fungal resistance: Reduced susceptibility to the powdery mildew pathogen (Oidium neolycopersici), a world-wide disease threatening the production of greenhouse- and field-grown tomatoes.
(Santillán Martínez et al., 2020)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Fungal resistance: increased resistance against powdery mildew, a destructive disease that threatens cucumber production globally.
(Dong et al., 2023)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
University of California Davis, USA
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Fungal resistance: resistance to Fusarium graminearum. Fusarium head blight (FHB) is an economically important disease, affecting both yield and grain quality of maize, wheat and barley.
(Brauer et al., 2020)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Canada
Bacterial resistance: enhanced disease resistance to Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis infection.
(García-Murillo et al., 2023)

CRISPR/Cas
Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico
Significantly enhanced resistance to V. dahliae, and furthermore also to Verticillium albo-atrum and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol), despite severe growth defects.
( Hanika et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Fungal resistance: Reduced susceptibility to necrotrophic fungi. Necrotrophic fungi, such as Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani, cause severe damage in tomato production.
(Ramirez Gaona et al., 2023)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Takii &
Company Limited, Japan
Fungal resistance: Enhanced resistance against powdery mildew, caused by Oidium neolycopersici, which is a major concern for the productivity of tomato plants.
(Li et al., 2024)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Torino, Italy
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Shanxi Agricultural University, China
Viral resistance: improved resistance to yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV).
(Tashkandi et al., 2018)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University
4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Detection method for the geminiviruses, tomato yellow leaf curl virus and tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus, which can cause huge economic losses and pose a threat to sustainable agriculture.
( Mahas et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
Fungal resistance: effective reduction of susceptibility against downy mildew by increasing salicylic acid levels. The pathogen can devastate individual vineyards and in some cases also affect production from entire regions.
(Giacomelli et al., 2023)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Research and Innovation Centre
Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy
Enza Zaden
Hudson River Biotechnology, The Netherlands
Resistance against a protist pathogen: stable resistance against clubroot disease. Clubroot disease is caused by the protist Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin and can result in a 10-15% yield loss in Brassica species as well as related crops.
(Hu et al., 2023)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Saskatoon Research and Development Centre, Canada
Viral resistance: resistance to Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). Delayed or reduced accumulation of viral DNA and abolished or attenuated symptoms of infection.
(Ali et al., 2015)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
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

Traits related to abiotic stress tolerance

Reduced cuticle permeability and enhanced drought tolerance.
( He et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Northwest A&
F University
USA
University of British Columbia, Canada
Enhanced drought tolerance.
( Wang et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico
Improved salt stress resistance. Significant increase in the shoot weight, the total chlorophyll content, and the chlorophyll fluorescence under salt stress. Also high antioxidant activities coincided with less reactive oxygen species (ROS).
( Shah Alam et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Zhejiang University, China
Taif University, Saudi Arabia
Alexandria University, Egypt
Increased drought-avoidance strategy.
( Maioli et al., 2024 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Torino, Italy
Ingeniero Fausto Elio/n, Spain
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Increased tolerance to drought trough reducing water loss. Tuber development.
( Gonzales et al., 2020 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Centro Nacional de Biotecnología – CSIC
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain

Traits related to improved food/feed quality

Increased amylose content in the seeds, thus a lower Glycemic Index (GI) value. Low GI rice is preferred to avoid a sudden rise in glucose in the bloodstream. Starch with a high GI threatens healthy individuals to get diabetes type II and proves extremely harmful for existing diabetes type II patients.
( Jameel et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Jamia Millia Islamia
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, India
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Improved seed oil content: increased levels of monounsaturated fatty acids and decreased levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
(Wang et al., 2022)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Huazhong Agricultural University, China
National Research Council Canada, Canada
Altered protein composition due to mutations in seed storage proteins. Two major families of storage proteins, account for about 70% of total soy seed protein. Some major biochemical components influencing the quality of soy food products, for example tofu, are both the quantity and quality of storage proteins in soybean seeds.
( Li et al., 2019 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Western University
Harrow Research and Development Centre, Canada
Sun Yat-sen University
Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Minnan Normal University
China

Traits related to increased plant yield and growth

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
Confer shoot architectural changes for increased resource inputs to increase crop yield.
( Stanic et al., 2021 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
University of Calgary, Canada
SRM Institute of Technology, India
Increased total kernel number or kernel weight.
( Kelliher et al., 2019 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Research Triangle Park
University of Georgia, USA
Syngenta Crop Protection, The Netherlands
Increased grain yield and quality.
( Luo et al., 2024 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Guizhou University, China
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Plant architecture: high tillering and reduced height.
(Butt et al., 2018)
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Altered root architecture with increased tillers and total grain weight.
( Rahim et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Quaid-e-Azam University
National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC)
The University of Haripur, Pakistan
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Nile University
Ain Shams University, Egypt
Chonnam National University, South Korea

Traits related to industrial utilization

Establishment of maternal haploid induction. Doubled haploid technology is used to obtain homozygous lines in a single generation. This technique significantly accelerates the crop breeding trajectory.
( Zhong et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
China Agricultural University, China
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Increasing cross over frequency. Cross over formation during meiosis is essential for crop breeding to introduce favourable alleles controlling important traits from wild relatives into crops.
( de Maagd et al., 2020 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Pollen Self-Elimination, which prevents pollen transgene dispersal.
( Wang et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
Northwest A&
F University
Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Lab
Henan Jinyuan Seed Industry Co., China
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico
Generate self-compatible diploid potato lines for the application of efficient breeding methods.
( Eggers et al., 2021 )
SDN3
CRISPR/Cas
Solynta
Wageningen University &
Research, The Netherlands
Establishment of maternal haploid induction. Doubled haploid technology is used to obtain homozygous lines in a single generation. This technique significantly accelerates the crop breeding trajectory.
( Zhong et al., 2022 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
China Agricultural University, China
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands

Traits related to herbicide tolerance

Herboxidiene
( Butt et al., 2019 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
Universite Paris-Saclay, France
Herbicide tolerance: AHAS-inhibiting
(Gocal et al., 2015)

ODM
Cibus, Canada
Cibus, USA
Bispyribac sodium
( Butt et al., 2017 )
SDN2
CRISPR/Cas
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Agricultural Research Center, Egypt
Rice University, USA
Bispyribac sodium
( Butt et al., 2020 )

PE
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia

Traits related to product color/flavour

A significant reduction of saponins. Saponins are a source of bitter, and metallic off-flavors in products containing peas.
( Hodgins et al., 2024 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
Universityof Calgary
Universityof Saskatchewan
National Research Council of Canada, Canada
Improved aroma, flavour and fatty acid (FA) profiles of pea seeds.
( Bhowmik et al., 2023 )
SDN1
CRISPR/Cas
National Research Council Canada (NRC)
University of Calgary
University of Saskatchewan
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
St. Boniface Hospital Research, Canada
John Innes Centre, UK