Scientists find gene to boost rice output
Chinese scientists have identified and cloned a rice gene that influences rice weight and yield. This discovery could help scientists develop higher yielding varieties of the world’s most important food crop.
Lin Hongxuan and colleagues from the Shanghai
Institutes for Biological Sciences studied two varieties of rice with highly
significant differences in grain size. After mapping their genomes, they found a
gene called GW2 in the large-grain rice that was lacking in the small-grain
rice. They then created a variety of the naturally small-grained rice with the
GW2 gene, and found that the gene increased the width and weight of rice grains
and increased grain yield per plant by nearly 20%.
Institutes for Biological Sciences studied two varieties of rice with highly
significant differences in grain size. After mapping their genomes, they found a
gene called GW2 in the large-grain rice that was lacking in the small-grain
rice. They then created a variety of the naturally small-grained rice with the
GW2 gene, and found that the gene increased the width and weight of rice grains
and increased grain yield per plant by nearly 20%.
The team say the GW2
gene will facilitate breeding efforts to improve grain yield in food crops. But
they say further evidence is needed to support their finding.
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