Computational Resources for Designing and Evaluating Genetically Modified Crops

Genetically modified (GM) crops play a crucial role in addressing pressing global issues, including public health, sustainable agriculture, and food security. To bring together a variety of computational resources related to GM crops, this review presents CoreGMC, a curated web-based bioinformatics platform. Here, resources are organized systematically into four principal categories: crop improvement, nutritional enhancement, therapeutic applications, and safety assessment. The present study begins with a concise overview of GM crops, their significance, history and current global status. A vital component of developing GM crops with increased resilience and productivity is identifying genes essential for conferring resistance to biotic and abiotic challenges, explicitly highlighted in the "Crop Improvement" section. Following that, the "Nutritional Value" section describes databases and computational tools designed to forecast and facilitate the incorporation of genetic alterations aimed at enhancing the nutritional value of crops. To further illustrate the potential of modified crops in the biomedical sector, the "Therapeutic Applications" section provides information on predicting therapeutic proteins produced by these crops. Finally, the computational tools developed for forecasting a wide range of potential toxicities in products derived from GM crops are included in our "Safety Assessment" section. This review aims to compile and present all computing tools that directly or indirectly support the development of GM crops. The CoreGMC platform is accessible at https://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/coregmc/.