European Journal of Sustainable Agroecosystems

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the critical vegetable crops around the globe, but the challenge of overwhelming RNA and DNA viral diseases such as Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), and Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) remains redoubtable as they induce severe losses in the yields and quality of crops and cannot be defended against by conventional methods of resistance breeding and vector management. CRISPR/Cas13 is a type VI class 2 CRISPR systems which is an RNA-targeting ribonuclease and differs from CRISPR/Cas9 in that it recognizes and cuts single-stranded RNA without modifications to its structure and, therefore, boasts a favorable route to combat the economically important tomato viruses that are all RNA viruses. This paper provides an overview of the results of scientific studies on the methods of anti-viral engineering in tomatoes using CRISPR/Cas13 technology and similar approaches in other plants of Solanaceae family and different model plants. From the results presented in the literature analyzed by the author, it follows that Cas13-crRNA complexes can be programmed against Conserved viral RNA regions can effectively inhibit the replication of viral RNA, with some studies discovering reductions of around 40% to over 99% when compared to normal controls as well as lower symptom severity and activation of host protective mechanism which involves, inter alia, salicylic acid signaling, pathogenesis-related genes activation, and endogenous RNA interference. A comparison with the CRISPR/Cas9-based strategies of fighting the DNA viruses shows that the approaches that target RNA work from a different mechanism in comparison with them and are highly relevant to the RNA virus affecting the tomato plants. Furthermore, although a lot of proof-of-concept evidence on the effectiveness of CRISPR/Cas13 technology has been collected, little has been done in regard to practical solutions for the specific applications of the technology to tomato plants and there is little knowledge about such issues as collateral RNase activity and efficiency of deployment without transgene.