Saponin toxicity as key player in plant defense against pathogens.

Microbial pathogens attack every plant tissue, including leaves, roots, shoots, and flowers during all growth stages. Thus, they cause several diseases resulting in a plant's failure or loss of the whole crop in severe cases. To combat the pathogens attack, plants produce some biologically active toxic compounds known as saponins. The saponins are secondary metabolic compounds produced in healthy plants with potential anti-pathogenic activity and serve as potential chemical barriers against pathogens. Saponins are classified into two major groups the steroidal and terpenoid saponins. Here, we reported the significance of saponin toxins in the war against insect pests, fungal, and bacterial pathogens. Saponins are present in both cultivated (chilies, spinach, soybean, quinoa, onion, oat, tea, etc.) and wild plant species. As they are natural toxic constituents of plant defense, breeders and plant researchers aiming to boost plant imm unity should focus on transferring these compounds in cash crops.

CRISPR/Cas9 to generate plant immunity against pathogen.

Different types of molecular approaches have been used for improving resistance against pathogens to secure food. Efficient and advanced genome editing tool as paralleled to earlier techniques like Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR). The approach of CRISPR/Cas9 has updated our abilities of genetic manipulation in many crops. The assembly of purposes that can be achieved through CRISPR/Cas9 and its related products make it a powerful system that will expose novel prospects in the complex domain of plant-pathogen interactions and will help to develop crop resistance against pathogens. CRISPR/Cas9 engineering permits DNA endonuclease guided by an RNA for a range of genome engineering applications across various eukaryotic species and provides an effective platform to create resistance against bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi. In this review, we discuss CRISPR-Cas9 engineered crop plants resistant to specific pathogens.