diff --git a/scrapy/crawler.py b/scrapy/crawler.py
index 20990ea41..c982611fb 100644
--- a/scrapy/crawler.py
+++ b/scrapy/crawler.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import inspect
 import logging
 import pprint
 import signal
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ from scrapy.extension import ExtensionManager
 from scrapy.interfaces import ISpiderLoader
 from scrapy.settings import overridden_settings, Settings
 from scrapy.signalmanager import SignalManager
+from scrapy.utils.defer import deferred_from_coro
 from scrapy.utils.log import (
     configure_logging,
     get_scrapy_root_handler,
@@ -84,7 +86,10 @@ class Crawler:
         try:
             self.spider = self._create_spider(*args, **kwargs)
             self.engine = self._create_engine()
-            start_requests = iter(self.spider.start_requests())
+            if inspect.iscoroutinefunction(self.spider.start_requests):
+                start_requests = yield deferred_from_coro(self.spider.start_requests())
+            else:
+                start_requests = iter(self.spider.start_requests())
             yield self.engine.open_spider(self.spider, start_requests)
             yield defer.maybeDeferred(self.engine.start)
         except Exception:
diff --git a/tests/test_engine.py b/tests/test_engine.py
index 5b7a4e676..4944423b9 100644
--- a/tests/test_engine.py
+++ b/tests/test_engine.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import re
 import sys
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
+from pytest import mark
 from twisted.internet import reactor, defer
 from twisted.web import server, static, util
 from twisted.trial import unittest
@@ -83,6 +84,11 @@ class ItemZeroDivisionErrorSpider(TestSpider):
     }
 
 
+class StartRequestsAsyncDefSpider(TestSpider):
+    async def start_requests(self):
+        return [Request(url, dont_filter=True) for url in self.start_urls]
+
+
 def start_test_site(debug=False):
     root_dir = os.path.join(tests_datadir, "test_site")
     r = static.File(root_dir)
@@ -201,6 +207,13 @@ class EngineTest(unittest.TestCase):
         yield self.run.run()
         self._assert_items_error()
 
+    @mark.only_asyncio()
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def test_crawler_startrequests_asyncdef(self):
+        self.run = CrawlerRun(StartRequestsAsyncDefSpider)
+        yield self.run.run()
+        self._assert_visited_urls()
+
     def _assert_visited_urls(self):
         must_be_visited = ["/", "/redirect", "/redirected",
                            "/item1.html", "/item2.html", "/item999.html"]