Breeding of Early Heading Date with High Yield Using CRISPR/Cas9 in Rice

Recent unpredictable climate change is a major cause of rice yield loss. In particular, methane is a key factor in global warming. Therefore rice breeders are trying to breed the reducing-methane gas emission rice using the crossbreeding method. However, the traditional crossbreeding method takes 8 to 10 years to breed a cultivar, and the anther culture method developed to shorten the breeding cycle also takes 6 to 7 years. On the other hand, CRISPR/Cas9 accurately edits the target trait and can rapidly breed rice cultivars by editing the target trait as a homozygous in 2-3 years. In addition, exogenous genetic elements such as Cas9 can be isolated from the G₁ generation. Therefore, the flowering time was regulated by applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology, and OsCKq1 genome-editing (OsCKq1-G) rice with early flowered and high yield was bred in the field. Genome-editing of OsCKq1 applied CRISPR/Cas9 technology up-regulates the expression of the flowering promotion gene Ehd1 under long-day conditions induces early flowering and increases the yield by increasing the 1,000-grain weight. And as the generations advanced, each agricultural trait indicated a low coefficient of variation. As a result, indicated that OsCKq1 plays an important role in regulating the flowering time and is related to the trait determining yield. Therefore, OsCKq1-G can suggest a breeding strategy for the Net-Zero national policy for reducing-methane gas emission rice by shortening the breeding cycle with the early flowered, and high-yield rice. CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a rapid and accurate breeding technology for breeding rice cultivars with important characteristics.