A successful example of transposon deletion using CRISPR-Cas9 as an
alternative technique for plant breeding was presented by experts from
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (Japan) and Yokohama
City University. The results of their study are published in Plant Cell
Reports.

Studies have shown that transposition of transposable elements (TEs) has an
impact on adjacent genes, which can lead to alterations in genetic traits,
including expression levels and patterns, splicing and epigenetic status,
and function of genes in or close to the added or removed locus may be
affected. Intentional alteration of loci adjacent to TEs or TEs themselves
using genome editing could mimic the naturally occurring translocation of
TEs, and lead to development of novel plants. Thus, the researchers
performed targeted deletion of Tos17 retrotransposon, which is flanked at
both ends by long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences, through genome editing in
rice.

Results showed successful targeted mutagenesis of the LTR, and targeted
deletion between LTRs. From the transformed calli, the next generation of
the regenerated plants lack Tos17. These results indicate successful
deletion of the Tos17 retrotransposon from the rice genome using
CRISPR-Cas9.

[link.springer.com]