Scientists seek ways to harvest rice's traits

Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, May 11, 2006

A Colorado State University researcher and her international colleagues are launching an effort to unlock the genetic secrets of rice, the principal source of nourishment for nearly half of the world.

Using techniques developed to sequence the human genome, the scientists will look for the genetic basis of traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance and nutritional value in 21 varieties of rice.

The information should speed the development of hardier, more productive types of rice, said CSU researcher Jan Leach, lead U.S. researcher on the study.

"We're just so excited because this is going to revolutionize rice research, we think," Leach said Wednesday.

The research team secured the funding needed to start the project.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide $715,000 over the next three years, and the International Rice Research Institute will supply $1 million. The Generation Challenge Program, an international funding agency, will give $250,000.

Partners in the project include The Institute for Genomic Research and Perlegen Sciences.

Several thousand varieties of rice exist today. Using various molecular biology techniques, the researchers will look for genetic differences between 21 of the strains.

Genetic information is coded in the four-letter alphabet - A,C,G and T - of the DNA sequence. The rice researchers will focus on single-letter differences in the DNA sequences of the various strains.

Then they'll try to determine how those genetic variations are linked to useful traits. "The information we'll provide is a means to identify useful traits in a crop species very quickly and to target them for breeding programs to improve crops at a faster rate than we've been able to do before," Leach said.