Improvement of Rice Seed Storability by Regulating Lipid Metabolism Using a CRISPR/Cas9 System

Long-term storage of rice grain is critical for global food security, yet rice is inherently susceptible to deterioration during storage. Herein, rice seed storability was improved by targeting three key enzyme genes in the lipid metabolism pathway via CRISPR/Cas9 technology, and the mechanism underlying this was analyzed by an untargeted lipidomic approach. Our findings demonstrate that the significantly inferior seed storability in the Yu-Zhen-Xiang (YZX) cultivar compared with the Xi-Li-Gong-Mi (XLGM) cultivar arises from accelerated lipid catabolism and reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction. Moreover, a fad2-1/lox3/pldα1 triple mutant in the YZX background was rapidly generated by FMPKC systems, and the mutant exhibited lower fatty acid accumulation and reduced ROS content, along with improved grain quality and nutritional value after accelerated aging. Lipidomic analysis indicated that diminished lipid hydrolysis and peroxidation collectively accounted for enhanced storability of the flp mutant. Collectively, this study establishes a robust strategy for rapidly and significantly improving rice aging tolerance, with potential applicability to other cereal crops for addressing critical challenges of grain storage.