Success of Genomic Editing with CRISPR / Cas9 Technology in Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the major food source for the most of people of the world. In the last few decades, the classical, mutational and molecular breeding approaches have caused enormous increase in rice productivity with the development of novel rice varieties. Stagnation in rice yield has been reported in recent decade because of emergence of pests and phyto pathogens, climate change, and other environmental issues. The CRISPR/Cas9 system has all genome editing capabilities, e.g., knock-in, knockout, knockdown, and expression activation. Researchers have been successful in editing genes controlling traits such as number of panicles per plant, number of seeds per panicle, grain weight, rice maturity, plant hormone synthesizing genes, amylose content, gelatinization temperature, grain length and width, as well as resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. The shift of research toward the utilization of CRISPR/Cas9 systems for targeted mutagenesis could be a promising approach for overcoming the barriers to breeding of improved rice. In this review, the progress in rice by employing the CRISPR/Cas9 editing system and its famous applications have been discussed. It is seemed that the CRISPR/Cas9 and associated genome editing tools have taken in a revolutionary change in rice improvement which is very important for meeting the demands and ensuring the requirement of rice for future generations.