The last decade has made cultivated rice of asian origin (Oryza sativa L.) the model cereal crop for application of the main cell and molecular biology techniques including genetic engineering- and now, with the on going sequencing of the whole rice genome and transcriptome, of functional genomics. Based on the experience accumulated in our laboratory, we will review the current achievements and limitations of the various gene transfer technologies applied to rice to date. We will survey the range of genes of interest which have been transferred to rice plants for varietal improvement by notably illustrating the case study of engineered insect resistance. The amenability of japonica rice to transformation has conducted to its routine use as a laboratory tool for understanding gene function and regulation in a gene by gene basis. With the ultimate goal of investigating genome-wide gene functions and interactions, gene transfer is currently used in several international initiatives of functional genomics to introduce in the rice genome insertional mutagens which are either the T-DNA per se or heterologous transposable elements such as the maize Ac/Ds system.Recent advances in that field will also be presented.