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Plant Genomics 2019
June 13-14, 2019
Berlin, Germany
Plant Genomics
5th Edition of International Conference on
Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research
ISSN: 2249-7412 Page 16
Genome editing in chili pepper using a
CRISPR/Cas9 Cytidine base editing system
Raj Kumar Joshi
Rama Devi Women’s University, India
Anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum species
complex is the most devastating disease of
chili pepper (Capsicum annuum) in the tropical
and subtropical regions of the world. Attempted
management of chili anthracnose through conventional
approaches hasn’t met with tangible success.
CRISPR/Cas9 based precise and predictable targeted
point mutations has emerged as the most powerful
alternative in plant breeding without the need for a
foreign DNA donor or double stranded DNA cleavage.
We have used a CRISPR/Cas9 fused Cytidine Base
Editing (CBE) system for precise editing of NAC72
locus in Chili pepper using Agrobacterium-mediated
transformation approach. The CBE efficiently edited
the targeted cytidine bases leading to anthracnose
resistance with precise base edition efficiency up to
69% in chili pepper. The outcomes from this study will
be deliberated to demonstrate that base editing could
facilitate precision molecular breeding in plants for
specific trait improvement.
Biography
Raj Kumar Joshi is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Bio-
technology, Rama Devi Women’s University, India where
he teaches graduate level courses on Plant Genomics and
Genetic Engineering. He also serves as the Group Leader of
the Plant Functional Genomics Group, and in that capacity
he supervises the overall research activities on the function-
al aspects of molecular plant-microbe interactions. He has
been awarded with the prestigious SERB early career grant
and SERB extramural grant from the Dept. of Science and
technology, Govt. of India and CREST award from Dept. of
Biotechnology, Govt. of India. In collaboration with Prof. Nat
Kav from University of Alberta, Canada, he is running a suc-
cessful program on the delineation of molecular networks in
the interaction between plants and fungal phytopathogens.
His recent forays into genome editing and precise base ed-
iting towards improvement of these crops has been highly
productive.
Raj Kumar Joshi, AJPSKY 2019, Volume 09