Avoiding damage and achieving cold tolerance in rice plants

Rice is a staple food for half of the human population. Unlike other cereals such as wheat and barley, rice plants are susceptible to cold stress, which often results in decreased productivity, especially in regions where the indica subspecies is cultivated. Low temperatures can have negative impacts on rice plants during germination, vegetative growth, and reproductive stages. Considering the expected higher frequency of extreme temperature events in the near future, cold waves could even increase the negative impacts of low temperatures in rice production. Here, we review the efforts that have been made to achieve cold tolerance in rice through breeding, the major tools used for evaluating cold tolerance in rice plants, the discovery of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes related to this tolerance, and the results obtained so far by genetic transformation of rice plants with potential cold-tolerance genes. Although much progress has been achieved, joint efforts from breeders and plant biologists could speed up the production of cold-tolerant rice plants, and some possible approaches are suggested.