Development of low-prolamin rice germplasm via CRISPR/Cas9 editing to improve eating and cooking quality.

A strategy for decreasing prolamin content in rice endosperm through gene editing.

Multiplex CRISPR editing of prolamin genes and phenotype-based screening revealed that reducing prolamin content in rice can increase lysine content and digestibility, improve taste. PROLM25 and PROLM26 are key genes for reducing prolamin content, and knocking out these two genes can achieve the same effect.

Engineering endosperm storage compartments enables simultaneous enrichment of multiple vitamins in rice.

Engineering rice endosperm with modules for vitamin binding, lipid storage, and antioxidant protection enriched water- and fat-soluble vitamins without compromising key agronomic traits and maintained vitamin higher levels after cooking, demonstrating its potential to improve crop nutrition.

Engineering glyphosate-resistant watermelon by prime editing.

Editing the watermelon EPSPS gene using a prime editing platform with visible markers created a non-transgenic glyphosate-resistant line. These robust heterozygous mutants tolerate field-level herbicide doses without growth penalties, serving as ideal parental lines for crop breeding.

A GmOIL2 allele separates fertility and seed traits in soybean.

A CRISPR-derived 36-bp in-frame deletion in GmOIL2 maintains fertility and seed weight while altering seed-related traits. This allele provides a genetic resource for improving soybean quality without affecting seed weight.

Scientists make advances in breeding high-resistant-starch rice

CRISPR-Cas9: an emerging and precise genome editing system for crops to combat food insecurity

Genome editing has emerged as a transformative tool to improve crop productivity, resilience, and nutritional quality, helping address global food insecurity. Among gene-editing platforms, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/ Cas systems (notably CRISPR-Cas9) offer simple, efficient, and scalable methods for targeted modifications, including knockouts, base edits, and precise “search-and-replace” prime edits. In plants, recent advances such as improved base editors, optimized prime-editing platforms, and DNA-free delivery methods have expanded the scope of edits achievable while reducing off-target effects and regulatory concerns. This review summarizes CRISPR principles, highlights technical breakthroughs and crop applications that mitigate biotic and abiotic stresses, and outlines practical challenges and future directions necessary for responsible deployment in agriculture.