Biotech Updates

ALK,the Key Gene for Gelatinization Temperature of Rice

September 2, 2011

Gelatinization temperature (GT) is one of the important parameters in evaluating the cooking and eating quality of rice, thus its phenotype, biochemistry, and inheritance have been widely studied by researchers. A previous study using map-based cloning revealed that GT was controlled by ALK gene. Through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, Zhenyu Gao and other scientists at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science produced transgenic rice lines with silenced ALK gene using RNAi vector and complementation vector. Results of the molecular analyses of the transgenic lines confirmed that ALK is a key gene for GT.

Other rice qualities such as amylase content, gel consistency, and pasting properties were also found to be affected in the transgenic lines. SNP and polymorphic sequence markers were developed for rice quality breeding.

Tha abstract of the study is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7909.2011.01065.x/abstract.