ABSTRACT
The rising world population is concerning the scientific community and drawing attention toward food security before any irreparable loss. For this purpose, genotypic as well as phenotypic expressions must be considered to enhance the hidden potentials of the crop plants. Cotton is considered an important cash and fiber crop and thereby earns outstanding export revenues for the country. Insect pests are a leading source of pathogenic diseases for crop plants and cause considerable damage to the GDP of a country. Lepidopteran pests such as Helicoverpa armigera and Pectinophora gossypiella are the most destructive and cosmopolitan pests of cotton. To overcome such challenges posed by these insect pests of cotton, advanced strategies such as RNAi, and CRISPR/Cas9 system coupled with gene drive, have been proposed by researchers. In this chapter, we aim to discuss those strategies that may be useful for breeding cotton for insect/pest resistance. Many revolutions have been made in the past decades such as the introduction and progress of Bt technology; however, the evolution of resistance in insects against Bt gene has frayed this potential technology. Novel approaches such as RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 are gaining more attention from researchers for the betterment of crop plants. Besides this technology, understanding potential targets and their principles is necessary for drawing suitable conclusions. Further studies related to insect resistance can open new avenues of modern technology to overcome these issues sooner or later.
