Rice is one of the world’s most important staple crops. Its breeding has evolved through stages from domestication, conventional crossing, marker-assisted selection and designer breeding by molecular modules to the current era of intelligent design, driven by advances in multi-omics, genome editing, and other emerging technologies. Designed breeding enables precise and predictable improvement of complex traits, a crucial capability for ensuring global food security and promoting sustainable agriculture in the face of climate change. This special issue, Rice Breeding by Design, explores the fine-tuned mechanisms underlying rice responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and that presents cutting-edge strategies for designed breeding aimed at improving plant structure, grain yield and gain quality. It also features comprehensive reviews that highlight recent progress toward enhancing sustainable rice productivity. Collectively, this special issue advances rational molecular design and provides new breeding strategies for enhanced sustainable green revolution yield in rice.

Edited by

Prof. Xiangdong Fu - Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Prof. Peng Qin - Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Prof. Hongning Tong - Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Prof. Hong Yu - Yazhou Bay National Laboratory, Sanya, China

Pages 959-1142 (June 2026)