Genome editing‑based strategies to combat geminiviruses: CRISPR/Cas9 and emerging high‑fidelity tools.

Plant virus diseases constitute a major constraint to agriculture and have adversely affected crop productivity worldwide. Over the past few decades, geminiviruses of the family Geminiviridae have emerged as some of the most destructive plant pathogens. Conventional. approaches for virus management have demonstrated varying degrees of success, their deployment is often hindered by prolonged timelines, limited availability of resistant sources, and reduced durability against rapidly evolving geminiviral pathogens. With the rapid evolution of viruses and the extensive damage they cause, it is imperative to develop rapid, cost-effective, and efficient antivirus resistance strategies. In recent years, CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing has made it possible to precisely target viral genomes, offering new avenues for developing antiviral resistance, although long-term durability remains under investigation. Derived from prokaryotic adaptive immune systems, the CRISPR/Cas platform confers resistance either by expressing genome-editing constructs that directly cleave viral genomes or by modifying host susceptibility (S) genes, representing mechanistically distinct strategies with different implications for durability of resistance. Recent advances have further expanded this toolkit with Cas-CLOVER, a dual guide RNA-dependent nuclease system designed to mitigate off-target effects associated with conventional Cas9. This review summarizes the principles of CRISPR/Cas-mediated antiviral resistance, critically evaluates viral escape, resistance durability, compares Cas9 with emerging platforms, and outlines conceptual frameworks for developing durable and field-ready genome-editing strategies.