Quantitative Regulation Of Waxy Expression By Crispr/Cas9-Based Promoter And 5'Utr-Intron Editing Improves Grain Quality In Rice

In cereal crops, grain starches are composed of different proportions of amylose and amylopectin, which determine the cooking and eating qualities. The amylose synthesis is controlled by the Waxy (Wx) gene encoding a granulebound NDP-glucose-starch glucosyltransferase (Shure et al., 1983). In rice (Oryza sativa L.), the varied activities of natural Wx alleles regulate different amylose contents (AC), gel consistency (GC), and pasting viscosity of grain starches; these factors together influence the grain appearance, cooking/eating quality, and starch physical characters (Zhang et al., 2019).