Shaping the Agronomy of Tomorrow: GMOs, CRISPR and New Breeding Techniques for Crop Improvement

Dear Colleagues,

The GMO debate seems to be fading away in many countries as the number of GMO crops and the field area used for this technology increase every year. Nevertheless, the number of GMO developments is still limited, and they are mainly devoted to technical improvements such as herbicide or pest resistance. Concomitantly, there is a lot of room for improvement, and many different applications are coming to the field, including abiotic stress resistance, nutritional improvement, health-promoting benefits, molecular breeding, or industrial applications (production of vaccines, medicines, or other chemicals). In addition, there are novel technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 or new breeding techniques with high potential for use in the development of novel and improved crops. For this Special Issue, we welcome papers related to the following topics:

• Description and characterization of new GMO crops;
• Description and characterization of new CRISPR/Cas9 crops;
• Description and characterization of new crops generated using new breeding techniques;
• Molecular breeding;
• Field tests involving any of the above;
• Reports characterizing genes or miRNAs using model plants with potential to be transferred to crops;
• Reports describing the use of GMO/CRISPR/Cas9 technology or new breeding techniques for crops with increased resistance to abiotic stress, enhanced nutritional content, or health-promoting properties;
• Reports describing the use of GMO/CRISPR/Cas9 technology or new breeding technique for enhancement of industrial crops or the production of chemicals of interest (vaccines, drugs, dyes, or any other molecules of industrial interest).

Dr. Jose M. Mulet
Guest Editor

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