Is Genome Editing Techniques the New Challenge for Plant Breeding?

Plant breeding is the “art and science” of the genetic improvement of crops to produce new varieties that had a large impact on crop yield and food production. Genetic variation is the engine that propels breeding to meet future challenges and this variation is due to intraand inter-specific recombination. The recombinant DNA technology marked the beginning of a new era, indeed conventional plant breeding was joined to the transgenic approach to produce genetically modified plants (GMP) and new varieties. Transgene technology created great opportunities but many questions about GMP impact and the consideration that many traits of interest are quantitative (QTL) with the problems of pyramiding genes, determined less enthusiasm for this approach. Recently, the knowledge in genome engineering technologies is flashing a new revolution in biological research. Nowadays the researchers can edit the function of DNA sequences in their genetic loci overcoming many problems of GMP, thus considered the enormous potentiality of genome editing the challenge is urgent a regulatory response towards the social acceptance of genome-editing crops, avoiding in the EU the mistakes of the past with GMP. Finally, a global policy for the “new” biotechnology has become necessary debating the integration of genome-editing crops into society. Key message: “Maximizing crop yield while at the same time minimizing crop failure for sustainable agriculture requires a better understanding of the impacts of plant breeding on crop genetic diversity” is this ancient message prosecutable also by genome editing?