Search

Phytophthora, also known as “plant destroyer”, is a distinctive phylogenetic group of fungus-like eukaryotic organisms, oomycetes (water molds), having more than 150 species of plant pathogens. It has become the most studied group of plant pathogens due to its extremely hazardous behavior towards plants and crops. This group comprises some of the most harmful plant pathogens that cause root rot, stem canker, fruit and tuber rot, leaf and stem blight, bleeding cankers, wilts, collar and crown rots, and many other diseases. Genome editing of such destructive organisms like Phytophthora was considered to be difficult for decades. Recently CRISPR-Cas has sparked a revolution in the field of genome editing and control on gene expression, due to its versatility and highly efficient nature. CRISPR-Cas has been efficiently used to target active genes that take part in the infectious cycle of different Phytophthora species, thus annotating and altering the function of targeted genes. Most importantly it has been used to target certain disease-resistant genes or to disrupt susceptible genes of crops or plants, hence improving the resistance capacity against pathogenic Phytophthora species. In future, this technology is expected to be more helpful in reshaping the disease-resistant species of various crops and to control the economic losses associated with Phytophthora and similar plant pathogens.