Enhancing Grain Yield and Quality Traits in Wheat through Precision Gene Editing

Abstract One of the most important and critical staple crops worldwide is wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), which serves as an important source of food security and nutrition, almost 20 per cent of human caloric and nutrition. Nonetheless, the increase in world demand, climatic change, and the decreasing arable lands require the emergence of wheat varieties with high yield and nutritional enrichment to be developed at a high rate. CRISPR/Cas system and precision gene editing has become an efficient and potent tool to target crop improvement. The technology allows introducing particular changes into the genomes of wheat to modify the primary agronomic characteristics of grain yield, grain size, spike architecture, and nutrient use efficiency. At the same time, gene editing can help to enhance grain quality properties, such as protein content, gluten content, fortification of micronutrients, and can decrease the anti-nutritional components, such as phytic acid. Latest achievements show that it is possible to successfully edit the genes like TaGW2, TaGS3, and TaGluD-1, which result in development of better grain weight, dough quality, and nutrient density without the use of foreign DNA. Improvement of traits in wheat by precise editing of homoeologous genes in polyploid wheat has also been possible without compromising genetic integrity. Although it has great potential, other challenges like off-target effects, regulatory issues and acceptance by the people are still there. To tackle such concerns with better editing fidelity, a clear communication and more science-based regulations is essential in order to become more widely adopted. the study explore existing approaches, the most important gene targets, case studies, and perspectives of gene editing in the improvement of wheat. It emphasizes the significance of combining gene editing with traditional breeding and genomic selection to achieve sustainable food and nutritional security in the world by producing next generation of wheat seeds.