Date published: 2005/08/11
The BBC says:
Scientists have unscrambled the genetic code of rice, a development that could help end hunger around the world, Nature magazine reports this week.
The blueprint will speed up the hunt for genes that improve productivity and guard against disease and pests.
In order to avoid shortages, rice yields must increase by 30% over the next 20 years, researchers say.
Scientists from 10 countries cooperated to work out how the 400 million "letters" of rice DNA are arranged.
"Rice is a critically important crop, and this finished sequence represents a major milestone," said Robin Buell of The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR). "We know the scientific community can use these data to develop new varieties of rice that deliver increased yields and grow in harsher conditions."
The research will also help scientists understand other vital food crops. Rice is genetically similar to maize, wheat, barley, rye, sorghum and sugarcane. So understanding the genomes of these plants is now a small step away.
"Rice is the Rosetta Stone for crop genomes," said Dr Buell. "We can use the rice genome as a base for genomic studies of cereals."
According to the United Nations, rice currently provides 20% of the world's dietary energy supply, while wheat supplies 19% and maize 5%.
Although rice represents 30% of global cereal production today, and production levels have doubled over the past 30 years, much more of the cereal will be needed in the future.
Current consumption trends suggest that about 4.6 billion people will be reliant on rice by the 2025. In addition, global warming may mean that rice is required to be more robust in the face of droughts.
Japan led the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, which included teams from the US, the UK, China, India, Thailand, Brazil and France.
If you ignore the unfortunate hyperbole about ending world hunger, this can only be a positive (and expected) step forward. So-called environmentalists who hate biotechnology are going to look more and more retrograde as the pace of these advances continues to grow.
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