Plant Genome Editing Mediated by CRISPR/Cas12a System

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system has emerged as an efficient genome editing tool. CRISPR/Cas12a system can induce the cohesive end with a single crRNA and T-rich PAM. Due to the characteristic, the scientists expanded the edit scope and developed the multiplex genes editing system and base editing system by CRISPR-Cpf1. In addition, they increased gene editing efficiency by the single transcription unit domain with different linkers in plants. So far, the CRISPR-Cas12a system is with higher efficiency, specificity, and easier for gene insertion and large fragment deletion. In this chapter, we summarize the current knowledge of CRISPR-Cas12a system, including found, mechanism, development, application in plants, and prospects.