CRISPR in crop defense: Targeting insect vectors and plant pathogens simultaneously

Abstract

Global food production is increasingly threatened by both insect-vectored diseases and direct plant pathogen infections. Traditional crop-protection strategies chemical pesticides, breeding for resistance, and integrated pest management are reaching their efficacy limits due to evolving pest resistance and regulatory restrictions. The advent of CRISPR-Cas technologies provides a transformative solution, enabling not only the precise engineering of plant immunity against viruses, bacteria, fungi, and insect herbivores but also novel strategies to directly disrupt insect vector populations or their ability to transmit pathogens. This comprehensive review examines current advances in deploying CRISPR-based approaches that simultaneously target insect vectors and plant pathogens. It covers CRISPR‑mediated editing of plant susceptibility genes, multiplex genome editing for multi‑stress resistance, CRISPR‑Cas systems targeting viral genomes, CRISPR-based gene drives and symbiont engineering in insect vectors, and integrated delivery methods such as insect-mediated, viral vectors, or plant-targeted systems. We discuss biological risks, ethical considerations, regulatory frameworks, and future prospects for this integrated crop-defense paradigm.