Figure 2.

Major concerns/outcomes of off‐target effects. CRISPR/Cas systems usually offer great potential in genome editing, but off‐target activity, causing unintended consequences, is limiting its applications for therapeutic and agricultural purposes. a) CRISPR/Cas9 with a specific sgRNA may sometimes bind and edit at a site other than its target sequence, known as off‐target editing. This may result in unexpected serious consequences, such as the activation/inactivation of off‐target genes which can result in lethal or undesired phenotypes, or the activation of oncogenes causing cancer in animals. b) CRISPR/Cas9 that accurately edits its target gene is termed on‐target editing. CRISPR/Cas9 has been used in wide range of plants and animals due to its robust on‐target editing efficiency. On‐target editing leads to desired targeted phenotypes. Created with BioRender.com.