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News
about Rice and People
5
April 2002
Decoding
the rice genome: Scientist welcome a new era of sharing and knowledge
Los
Baños - Scientists at the Philippine-based International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) are signaling a new era in rice research
with the publishing on April 5 of the latest draft sequences of the
rice genome, or genetic makeup, of the two main types of rice grown
in the world today.
"The
milestone publication in this week's Science (magazine) of not one,
but two, draft genome sequences of rice brings the cereal crop of the
world's poor to center stage," wrote Ronald P. Cantrell,
director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI),
and Timonthy G. Reeves, director general of the International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in a commentary appearing in
Science, where the genome information was published.
"We
believe that the genome sequencing of the world's two most important
rice subspecies will be the first sequencing projects to yield
tangible results for humankind from the standpoints of food security
and combating malnutrition," Dr Cantrell said. The draft
sequence of the indica rice subspecies was done by the Beijing
Genomics Institute (BGI) in China, and the japonica subspecies was
further sequenced by a team from the Swiss company Syngenta. Both
groups published their results in Science this week amid predictions
of the enormous potential impact on rice production.
What
is so special about rice production? Put simply, no other economic
activity feeds so many people, supports so many families, is so
crucial to the development of so many nations, or has more impact on
our environment.
Rice
production feeds almost half the planet each day, provides most of
the main income for millions of poor rural households, helps ensure
social stability in some of the world's biggest nations, and covers
11 percent of the earth's arable area.
However,
Dr. Cantrell stressed that just as important as the actual
scientific advances achieved was the public sharing of information by
both groups. "IRRI advocates broad collaborations in rice
research that embrace innovations by both the public and private
sectors, with emphasis on the need to provide the best science to
serve the poor," he said. "The public availability of the
rice sequences published in this issue [of Science] will boost this commitment.
"The
continuing challenge for all scientists is to broaden the developing
world's access to information and technology," Dr. Cantrell
said. "We must provide not only finished products but also the
technologies that will enable a new generation of researchers in
developing countries to solve their food production problems."
In
light of this, Syngenta's efforts to negotiate a regime for making
its rice data available have been welcomed by researchers at publicly
funded institutions - particularly at IRRI, which this week marked
its 42nd year of helping to ensure global food security and alleviate poverty.
"It
is extremely important that Syngenta continue its efforts to provide
nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and governments free
access to data on the rice genome," said Per Pinstrup-Anderson,
director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) and winner of the 2001 World Food Prize. "We encourage
Syngenta to make all relevant data freely accessible in the public
domain." IFPRI is a sister Future Harvest center of IRRI, both
of them publicly funded through the Consultative Group on
International Agriculture (CGIAR) IRRI, like many of the other
publicly funded Future Harvest centers, relies on the broad sharing
of genetic information and seed stocks to breed crop varieties that
offer farmers higher yields, greater resistance to pests and
diseases, improved tolerance for drought, submergence and problem
soils, as well as good eating quality, and ready marketability.
Dr.
Cantrell also stressed that despite the great significance of the
sequencing work by the BGI and Syngenta, a complete understanding of
the rice genome has still not been reached. "These drafts will
be combined with a complete rice genome sequence being compiled by
the public International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP)
coordinated by the Japan Rice Genome Program." The finely
detailed IRGSP sequence, which will have an error rate of less than
0.01 percent, is expected to be published by the end of this year.
"The
highly accurate IRGSP sequence will serve as the gold standard for
all future investigations of genetic variation in crops," Dr
Cantrell said, adding that by decoding the rice genome, scientists
had shed light on the larger, but parallel, genomes of other
agriculturally significant cereals such as wheat and maize.
"Knowing the sequence of specific genes will allow us to tap
into the natural genetic variation of crop species," wrote Hei
Leung, a plant pathologist at IRRI, and Pamela Ronald, from the
Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis,
in another commentary in Science. "In rice, there are over
100,000 accessions of traditional rice varieties and wild species
(together referred to as germplasm) collected from a broad range of
geo-climates and held in trust" in the International Rice
Genebank at IRRI.
"These
rice seeds serve as a pool of 'natural variants' with the advantage
that some of these variants (alleles) have already been 'tested'
through years of natural or artificial selection under different
environmental conditions," Drs. Leung and Ronald continued.
"To date, this wealth of information has remained largely
untapped owing to the difficulty of identifying agronomically
important genes.... The convergence of the different versions of the
genome sequence by the end of 2002 will yield great insight into the
relation between sequence diversity and functional diversity in a
wide variety of germplasm, the foundation on which agricultural
productivity depends."
"Although
achieving food security will require a multitude of social and
economic solutions, the new knowledge derived from genomics research
will make an important contribution," they added. "The
challenge ahead for the plant research community is to design
efficient ways to tap into the wealth of rice genome sequence
information to address production constraints in an environmentally
sustainable manner."
IRRI
is the world's leading international rice research and training center.
Based
in the Philippines and with offices in 11 other countries, it is an
autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on improving the well-being
of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers,
particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural
resources. IRRI is one of 16 Future Harvest centers funded the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an
association of public and private donor agencies.
For
more information, visit the websites of CGIAR (www.cgiar.org)
or Future Harvest (www.futureharvest.org).
Future Harvest is a nonprofit organization that builds awareness and
supports food and environmental research for a world with less
poverty, a healthier human family, well-nourished children, and a
better environment. Future Harvest supports research, promotes
partnerships, and sponsors projects that bring the results of
agricultural research to rural communities, farmers, and families in
Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
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For
additional information, contact Duncan Macintosh, IRRI, DAPO Box
7777, Metro Manila, Philippines; telephone (63-2) 845-0563 or (63-2)
844-3351 to 53; fax: (63-2) 891-1291 or (63-2) 845-0606;
email:
d.macintosh@cgiar.org
Web
(IRRI): <http://www.irri.org/>
; Web (Library): <http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org/>
Web
(Riceweb): http://www.riceweb.org
; Web (Riceworld): http://www.riceworld.org
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