Rice feeds more than three billion people globally, and thus, scientists have long been putting great efforts to improve this important crop. One of the advances in rice improvement is the usage of genome editing tools to target genes for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, nutrition quality improvement, and yield improvement.

Researcher Kaijun Zao from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and colleagues present advances, challenges, and future implications of genome editing in rice in an article in Frontiers in Plant Science, focusing on the three most promising genome editing tools: CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPR-Cpf1, and CRISPR-Cas9-based base editor. They also mentioned genome-editing based epigenetic regulation, which involves modification of gene expression without changing the DNA sequence.

For more information, read the article in Frontiers in Plant Science.

Figure: Comparison between CRISPR from Prevotella and Francisella 1 (Cpf1) and CRISPR-Crisper associated protein 9 (Cas9). In a CRISPR–Cpf1 system, a T-rich protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) creates a double stranded break (DSBs) at the distal region of the recognition site producing cohesive ends. In a CRISPR–Cas9 system, a G-rich PAM creates DSBs toward the proximal end of the recognition site resulting in blunt ends.