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Credit: David Thurston, Cornell University
Rice seedling beds at the International
Rice Research Institute at Los Baños,
The Philippines, where scientists are
seeking sustainable and environmental
approaches to improving rice agriculture
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This summer, the journal Nature proclaimed the completion of the rice genome by the Plant Genome Initiative at Rutgers (PGIR) and other members of an international consortium.
“This is a breakthrough of inestimable significance not only for science and agriculture, but also for all those people who depend on rice as their primary dietary staple – more than half the world’s population,” said Joachim Messing, director of Rutgers’ Waksman Institute of Microbiology, home to the PGIR.
The publicly available finished sequence is anchored to the genetic map, providing both the linear order of the 37,544 genes and their positions on the 12 rice chromosomes. This map-based characterization of the rice genome already has led to the identification of important genes, such as those that may increase yield and productivity.
The advance will enable agricultural breeders to also address other critical issues in rice cultivation. Messing noted that rice cultivation today creates an enormous environmental burden in terms of the quantities of water and fertilizer required to produce a successful crop. Genomic information offers a genetic toolkit to the breeder who can use this new knowledge in developing novel strains that are highly productive and disease resistant, as well as more environmentally friendly.
“The rice genome is the Rosetta Stone of all the bigger grass genomes. Knowing its sequence will provide instantaneous access to the same genes in the same relative physical position in other grasses and accelerate plant gene discovery in many important crops such as corn and wheat,” Messing said.
Research groups in 10 countries coordinated their efforts through the consortium known as the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project. Rutgers was the only participant in the project to be financially supported solely by its own institution.
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