Future perspectives Although CRISPR/ Cas systems show great promise and flexibility for genetic engineering, sequence requirements within the PAM sequence may constrain some applications. Directed evolution of the Cas9 protein should offer a path toward PAM independence , and may also provide a means to generate an even more efficient Cas9 endonuclease . References J A. Doudna and E. Charpentier (2014). The new frontier of genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9 S cience 346 (6213), . [ doi : 10.1126/science.1258096] Gaj T., Gersbach C. A. and Barbas III C.F. (2013). ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR/ Cas -based methods for genome engineering. Trends Biotechnol Vol. 31, No. 7 398 Wang F, Wang C, Liu P, Lei C, Hao W, Gao Y, et al. (2016) Enhanced Rice Blast Resistance by CRISPR/Cas9-Targeted Mutagenesis of the ERF Transcription Factor Gene OsERF922. PLoS ONE 11 (4): e0154027. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154027 Song G., Jia , M., Chen, K., Kong, X., Khattak , B., Xie , C., Li, A., and Mao, L. (2016). CRISPR/Cas9: A powerful tool for crop genome editing. The Crop Journal 75-82. Jinek , M., Chylinski , K., Fonfara , I., Hauer , M., Doudna , j. A., and Charpentier, E. (2012).A Programmable Dual-RNA –Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity. Science 337, 816