Construction of a Genome-Wide Mutant Library in Rice Using CRISPR/Cas9

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the world's most important staple crops and a powerful model system for studying monocot species because of its relatively small genome, rich genomic resources, and a highly efficient transformation system. With the completion of rice genome sequencing, the challenge of the post-genomic era is to systematically analyze the functions of all rice genes. Gene knockout is a frequently used and effective strategy for achieving this goal. Thus, generation of large-scale mutants at the whole-genome level is of great value for both functional genomics and genetic improvement of rice.