Deciphering the Functions of 41,000 Rice Genes

Rice, with its diminutive genome, has been used as a model crop for research of other cereals. The rice genome, around 420 megabases long, is one-sixth the size of the maize genome and 40 times smaller than that of wheat. Although the complete rice genome sequence was finished in 2004, research on the function of individual rice genes lags behind the same studies in other cereal crops.

Pamela Ronald and colleagues from the University of California-Davis and Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea have catalogued the different techniques available to determine the function of genes in rice. These tools, which will help scientists discover the function of the estimated 41,000 rice genes, include: rice lines that are lacking function of one or more genes (gene-indexed mutations), methods for assaying the expression of genes in different environments, and databases to catalog rice gene function (whole-genome arrays and genome-tilling arrays).

These tools can also be used in studying other cereals as well as bioenergy crops, such as switchgrass. The study was funded by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).

For more information, visit http://www.csrees.usda.gov/ The paper published by Nature Review Genetics is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrg2286