Abstract
Leroy Hood and Gregory G. Mahairas (University of Washington, USA), under contract to Monsanto (St Louis, MO, USA), have decoded the rice genome sequence to the level of a ‘working draft’, which promises to advance the completion date of the sequencing effort by at least 4–5 years. Monsanto’s data will be made available, at no cost, to the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (a ten-member consortium of rice genome sequencing projects around the world) and to researchers outside this consortium. The rice genome contains 430 million base pairs of DNA, making this project second only to the human genome project in current genome projects. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) estimates that there will be a billion new rice consumers in Asia by 2020. Globally 560 million tonnes of rice were produced on 150 million ha in 1998. Rice is the staple crop for many developing areas of the world. These areas experience some of the greatest rates of population increase and environmental degradation caused by agriculture is extreme. Monsanto undertook the rice genome-sequencing project as part of its ongoing crop research and development programs. Cereals have genomes that are many times larger than that of rice, but they contain about the same number of active genes (∼30 000–35 000).
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
