The improvement of plants, in order to give them better resistance to
diseases, relies on the existence of diverse natural populations. Traditionally, the
breeder’s role has been to crossbreed populations to obtain varieties possessing the
desired traits. Modern advances in genetic engineering, in association with omic
sciences, allow breeders to increase the genetic diversity of the populations on which
selection operates, and to introgress new traits using various molecular methods, such
as chemical or irradiation-based mutagenesis, genetic transformation or genome
editing. It is most often a question of modifying existing varieties in order to obtain
new ones which have the properties desired by researchers, according to the needs
expressed by the various actors concerned. Here, we review the increasing usefulness
and applicability of biotechnology and genetic engineering approaches for accelerating
variety development and crop improvement.
Keywords: Bacterial Harpins (hrp) genes, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) deltaendotoxin genes, Biotechnology, Crop improvement, CRISPR-Cas9, Genetic
Engineering, Genetically engineered crops, Plant Protease Inhibitors (PI), Plant
genome editing, RNA-based antiviral resistance.