Genome-edited Camelina sativa with a unique fatty acid content and its potential impact on ecosystems

Abstract

‘Genome editing’ is intended to accelerate modern plant breeding enabling a much faster and more efficient development of crops with improved traits such as increased yield, altered nutritional composition, as well as resistance to factors of biotic and abiotic stress. These traits are often generated by site-directed nuclease-1 (SDN-1) applications that induce small, targeted changes in the plant genomes. These intended alterations can be combined in a way to generate plants with genomes that are altered on a larger scale than it is possible with conventional breeding techniques. The power and the potential of genome editing comes from its highly effective mode of action being able to generate different allelic combinations of genes, creating, at its most efficient, homozygous gene knockouts. Additionally, multiple copies of functional genes can be targeted all at once. This is especially relevant in polyploid plants such as Camelina sativa which contain complex genomes with multiple chromosome sets. Intended alterations induced by genome editing have potential to unintentionally alter the composition of a plant and/or interfere with its metabolism, e.g., with the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites such as phytohormones or other biomolecules. This could affect diverse defense mechanisms and inter-/intra-specific communication of plants having a direct impact on associated ecosystems. This review focuses on the intended alterations in crops mediated by SDN-1 applications, the generation of novel genotypes and the ecological effects emerging from these intended alterations. Genome editing applications in C. sativa are used to exemplify these issues in a crop with a complex genome. C. sativa is mainly altered in its fatty acid biosynthesis and used as an oilseed crop to produce biofuels.