Recent studies have shown that despite gross differences in genome size, the gene order in the cereal genomes has remained remarkably similar. This observation implies that the small genome of rice will reflect the basic structure of the cereal genomes. Rice will therefore become an important tool for all cereal geneticists/molecular biologists as information generated by rice breeders/geneticists/molecular biologists becomes combined in databases with that generated by researchers studying other cereals. Rice research will therefore be of interest to all cereal breeders/geneticists/molecular biologists. This Edition reviews the current state of knowledge of its genome, genes, germplasm collections, trait analysis, breeding systems, mutator systems, transformation and diseases.