CRISPR/Cas9: Development and Application in Rice Breeding

ROMERO FM; GATICA-ARIAS A

RICE SCIENCE

ELSEVIER

Año: 2019 vol. 26 p. 265 - 281

1672-6308

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple food crop worldwide due to its adaptability to different environmental conditions. Because of its great economic and social importance, there is a constant requirement for new varieties with improved agronomic characteristics, such as tolerance to different biotic (bacteria, fungi, insects, and virus) and abiotic stresses (salinity, drought, temperature), higher yields and better organoleptic and nutritional value. Among the new genome editing technologies, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein (CRISPR-Cas9) system allows precise and specific edition in a targeted genome region. It is one of the most frequently used techniques for the study of the function of new genes and for the development of mutant lines with enhanced tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, herbicide resistance or improved yield. The wide variety of applications for this technology includes simple non-homologous end joining, homologous recombination, gene replacement, and base editing, among others. In this review, we will analyse how some of these applications have been used in rice cultivars to obtain rice varieties better adapted to current environmental conditions and market requirements.