Base editing in rice: current progress, advances, limitations, and future perspectives

Key message Base editing is one of the promising genome editing tools for generating single-nucleotide changes in rice genome. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple food crop, feeding half of the population around the globe. Developing new rice varieties with desirable agronomic traits is necessary for sustaining global food security. The use of genome editing technologies for developing rice varieties is pre-requisite in the present scenario. Among the genome editing technologies developed for rice crop improvement, base editing technology has emerged as an efficient and reliable tool for precise genome editing in rice plants. Base editing technology utilizes either adenosine or cytidine base editor for precise editing at the target region. A base editor (adenosine or cytidine) is a fusion of catalytically inactive CRISPR/Cas9 domain and adenosine or cytidine deaminase domain. In this review, authors have discussed the different adenine and cytosine base editors developed so far for precise genome editing of rice via base editing technology. We address the current progress, advances, limitations, as well as future perspectives of the base editing technology for rice crop improvement.

Automated summary

Base editing is a promising genome editing tool for generating single-nucleotide changes in the rice genome, which is essential for developing new rice varieties with desirable agronomic traits to sustain global food security. Base editing technology utilizes adenosine or cytidine base editors for precise editing at the target region, making it an efficient and reliable tool for rice crop improvement. This review discusses different adenine and cytosine base editors developed for precise genome editing of rice, addressing the current progress, advances, limitations, and future perspectives of base editing technology for rice crop improvement.