ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the budding field of targeted modifications in the upstream gene regulatory regions of plants, as well as its potential for crop improvement. Plant growth and development depends on sets of genes expressed in various tissues during different developmental phases and under changing environmental conditions. Through genome editing technologies, the targeted modification of a promoter in its native context within the genome allows for the study of promoter function with precision never before achievable, enables fine modulations of native gene expression, and can accelerate the generation of useful promoter variants for crop improvement. The chapter provides the context and background information on plant promoters and leading introns, which are often associated with promoter regions. It covers the principles of promoter editing, followed by the approaches for promoter editing based on the recent advancements in genome editing technology. Regulatory properties of promoters are mainly determined by their contributing cis-elements.
