Application of Genome Editing Using the CRISPR/Cas9 System in Rice Research and Development

Abstract

Human have been utilizing plants for various purposes, i.e. as a direct source of human food, animal feed, a source of medicines, as well as a source of biofuels. Modern plant varieties have been improved from either wild species or indigenous species. The conventional breeding process relies on the genetic diversity that already exists in the nature. This requires the process of breeding and selecting elite lines in the large populations for several generations until the desirable characteristics can be transferred into new plant varieties. It is a resource-intensive process. Genome editing at the targeted position, which uses specific nucleases could enhance the potential of both basic research and its application in plant breeding as well. This is because the scientists could conduct the plant genome editing rapidly, precisely and could predict the outcomes resulting from the genome editing. This review article will focus on plant genome editing with CRISPR/Cas9, a genome-editing system that uses nucleases to generate DNA double-strand breaks at specific locations since it is a technique that most researchers currently use and have already been applied for rice germplasm improvement. However, Thailand should have clear rules and regulations to encourage researchers to be more interested in conducting research in this area.