Rice growers may soon have DNA technology at their fingertips to help them overcome the various issues facing the grains that feed half the world as they arise—but it’s simpler than you might think.
For thousands of years, farmers have been selecting for the traits they want in their crops through simple trial and error, but new gene sequencing technology is looking to facilitate this process greatly. In fact, according to Phys.org, it’s anticipated that this technology with streamline the process so that it takes a quarter of the time it does now; it could reduce the timespan needed to develop new rice varieties in response to environmental changes to less than three years, as compared to 12 without the technology.
The idea is actually fairly simple. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines has a massive bank of rice varieties, which researchers paired sequenced using advanced Chinese technology. Now, more than 3,000 of the world’s most important kinds of rice have their entire genomes sequenced, along what their genes code for.
Which means that, should a farmer be faced with a challenge such as a floods, new pests, or shifting nutritional needs, they can better figure out how to breed new rice varieties from existing ones by selecting for crops with the traits they desire.
“Essentially, you will be able to design what properties you want in rice, in terms of the drought resistance, resistance to diseases, high yields, and others,” said Russian bioanalytics expert and IRRI team member Nickolai Alexandrov.
However, researchers also emphasize that this is not genetic modification (like with GMOs), but rather selective breeding—which they believe will lead to the second “green revolution”. The first one began in the 1960s, with the development of rice and wheat that created higher yields, and is now credited with preventing global food shortages.
But these gains plateaued around 1970, making this innovation a potential game-changer for rice growers.
“This will be a big help to strengthen food security for rice eaters,” said Kenneth McNally, an American biochemist at the IRRI.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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