What can be cooked in pudding, piled under teryaki sauce, and tossed at freshly wedded
couples? No, not your little sister's Beanie Babies. Rice.
It’s a versatile grain that attracted a storm of attention earlier this year when scientists announced they had completed the draft genome sequences of two strains.
Not the kind of news you'd wake up the neighbors for? Consider this: Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world's population, and the findings will help plant breeders develop and improve the revered grain, supporting efforts to reduce global malnutrition and hunger.
Researchers from the Beijing Genomics Institute sequenced the genome of the indica subspecies of rice, the most widely cultivated strain in Asia. Another group from the Switzerland-based company Syngenta worked on the japonica strain common in Japan and other temperate regions.
As it turns out, the rice genome contains 440 million DNA letters or base pairs and has between 32,000 to 56,000 genes. The human genome is seven times larger, but may contain the same number -- or even fewer -- genes.
The rice genomes are draft sequences that still contain many errors and gaps, but researchers expect them to be a goldmine of information.
It isn't the kind of research that's likely to collect dust on library shelves. Scientists can use genome information to improve crop yields and introduce traits that offer drought and salt tolerance or pest resistance.
The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, an international union of publicly-funded laboratories, is on schedule to offer a more complete sequence, using a slower and more expensive technique, by 2004.
Courtesy USDA.
