Single Base Editing Using Cytidine Deaminase to Change Grain Size and Seed Coat Color in Rice

The fast-moving CRISPR technology has allowed plant scientists to manipulate plant genomes in a targeted manner. So far, most of the applications were focused on gene knocking out by creating indels. However, more precise genome editing tools are demanded to assist the introduction of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in breeding programs. The CRISPR base editing tools were developed to meet this need. In this chapter, we present a cytidine deaminase base editing method for editing the point mutations that control the grain size and seed coat color in rice.