Le nuove vie del miglioramento genetico delle piante agroalimentari: dalle tecnologie di breeding cisgenico a quelle di editing genomico.

Advances in genome sequencing have led to the rapid development of new biotechnologies for the genetic improvement of crop plants. Among the new biotechnological tools, the most promising are cisgenic breeding and genomic editing, which have great potentials for the intensification of sustainable agriculture systems and the implementation of food security, in response to the growing population and the climate change that we are witnessing. Contrary to what happens with transgenesis, the plant genetically modified by these new technologies has the peculiarity of not having exogenous coding DNA and therefore it is not distinguishable from plants improved using traditional plant breeding schemes. Our goal is to explain how these new bio- technologies work, highlighting the potential applications and drawbacks, compared to traditional plant breeding techniques.