Rice Genome Editing

Recently developed methods for genome editing have the potential to accelerate basic research as well as plant breeding by providing the means to modify genomes rapidly in a precise or predictable manner. Sequence-specific nucleases (SSNs) induce targeted DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and different genome modifications can be achieved depending on the repair pathway. Non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair creates mainly insertions or deletions (in/dels) at the break sites, which can result in frameshift mutations. Such NHEJ-mediated gene modification is called targeted mutagenesis. On the other hand, when a template with homology to the sequence surrounding the DSB is available, DNA DSBs can be repaired by homologous recombination (HR) repair. Such template-mediated HR achieves gene targeting (GT); GT can be used to introduce any desired mutation because the sequence supplied on the repair template is copied and pasted into the endogenous genome. In this chapter, we provide an overview of recent advances in genome-editing technologies in rice.