벼의 CRISPR/Cas9 기반 유전자 교정을 통한 내병성 및 내재해성 증진 연구 동향

Research Advances in Improving Disease Resistance and Abiotic Stress Tolerance Using CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing in Rice

As recent advances in gene editing technologies have enabled rapid and accurate modification of target genes, new varieties are being developed through the application of gene editing technologies in various crop species. In particular, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has become a tool of choice for gene editing because it is much more economical and efficient than previous tools such as ZFN and TALEN, and is being actively used to improve various breeding traits, including biotic and abiotic stress tolerance to overcome the limitations of conventional plant breeding technologies. In this review, we retrieved 210 papers describing the utilization of CRISPR/Cas9 in rice published between 2013 and 2021 and classified them according to the field of study and traits of interest. Further case studies were conducted on 21 and 12 research papers that reported the enhancement of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, respectively. This demonstrated that CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing can be highly effective in improving resistance to bacterial (bacterial leaf blight and bacterial leaf streak), fungal (blast, sheath blight), and viral (rice tungro spherical virus, rice black streak virus) diseases as well as various abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, cold, and heat, in many cases, without diminishing important agronomic traits. As recent technological advances have begun to overcome the major limitations of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, such as low HDR efficiency and off-target effects, it is expected that more research on gene function and cultivar development will adopt CRISPR/Cas9 as a major gene editing tool in the future. To effectively apply such innovative technologies in crop improvement, much effort is required to establish more reasonable and detailed policies for regulating crops developed through new breeding technologies.