Los Baños, The Philippines
April 5, 2002

Scientists at the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are signaling a new era in rice research with the publishing on April 5 of the latest draft sequences of the rice genome, or genetic makeup, of the two main types of rice grown in the world today.

"The milestone publication in this week's Science (magazine) of not one, but two, draft genome sequences of rice brings the cereal crop of the world's poor to center stage," wrote Ronald P. Cantrell, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and Timonthy G. Reeves, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in a commentary appearing in Science, where the genome information was published.

"We believe that the genome sequencing of the world's two most important rice subspecies will be the first sequencing projects to yield tangible results for humankind from the standpoints of food security and combating malnutrition," Dr Cantrell said. The draft sequence of the indica rice subspecies was done by the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in China, and the japonica subspecies was further sequenced by a team from the Swiss company Syngenta. Both groups published their results in Science this week amid predictions of the enormous potential impact on rice production.

What is so special about rice production? Put simply, no other economic activity feeds so many people, supports so many families, is so crucial to the development of so many nations, or has more impact on our environment. Rice production feeds almost half the planet each day, provides most of the
main income for millions of poor rural households, helps ensure social stability in some of the world's biggest nations, and covers 11 percent of the earth's arable area.

However, Dr. Cantrell stressed that just as important as the actual scientific advances achieved was the public sharing of information by both groups. "IRRI advocates broad collaborations in rice research that embrace innovations by both the public and private sectors, with emphasis on the need to provide the best science to serve the poor," he said. "The public availability of the rice sequences published in this issue [of Science] will boost this commitment.

"The continuing challenge for all scientists is to broaden the developing world's access to information and technology," Dr. Cantrell said. "We must provide not only finished products but also the technologies that will enable a new generation of researchers in developing countries to solve their food production problems."

In light of this, Syngenta's efforts to negotiate a regime for making its rice data available have been welcomed by researchers at publicly funded institutions - particularly at IRRI, which this week marked its 42nd year of helping to ensure global food security and alleviate poverty.

"It is extremely important that Syngenta continue its efforts to provide nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and governments free access to data on the rice genome," said Per Pinstrup-Anderson, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and winner of the
2001 World Food Prize. "We encourage Syngenta to make all relevant data freely accessible in the public domain." IFPRI is a sister Future Harvest center of IRRI, both of them publicly funded through the Consultative Group on International Agriculture (CGIAR)

IRRI, like many of the other publicly funded Future Harvest centers, relies on the broad sharing of genetic information and seed stocks to breed crop varieties that offer farmers higher yields, greater resistance to pests and diseases, improved tolerance for drought, submergence and problem soils, as
well as good eating quality, and ready marketability.

Dr. Cantrell also stressed that despite the great significance of the sequencing work by the BGI and Syngenta, a complete understanding of the rice genome has still not been reached. "These drafts will be combined with a complete rice genome sequence being compiled by the public International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) coordinated by the Japan Rice Genome Program." The finely detailed IRGSP sequence, which will have an error rate of less than 0.01 percent, is expected to be published by the end of this year.

"The highly accurate IRGSP sequence will serve as the gold standard for all future investigations of genetic variation in crops," Dr Cantrell said, adding that by decoding the rice genome, scientists had shed light on the larger, but parallel, genomes of other agriculturally significant cereals such as wheat and maize.

"Knowing the sequence of specific genes will allow us to tap into the natural genetic variation of crop species," wrote Hei Leung, a plant pathologist at IRRI, and Pamela Ronald, from the Department of
Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis, in another commentary in Science. "In rice, there are over 100,000 accessions of traditional rice varieties and wild species (together referred to as germplasm) collected from a broad range of geo-climates and held in trust" in the International Rice Genebank at IRRI.

"These rice seeds serve as a pool of 'natural variants' with the advantage that some of these variants (alleles) have already been 'tested' through years of natural or artificial selection under different environmental conditions," Drs. Leung and Ronald continued. "To date, this wealth of information has remained largely untapped owing to the difficulty of identifying agronomically important genes.... The convergence of the different versions of the genome sequence by the end of 2002 will yield great insight into the relation between sequence diversity and functional diversity in a wide variety of germplasm, the foundation on which agricultural productivity depends."

"Although achieving food security will require a multitude of social and economic solutions, the new knowledge derived from genomics research will make an important contribution," they added. "The challenge ahead for the plant research community is to design efficient ways to tap into the wealth
of rice genome sequence information to address production constraints in an environmentally sustainable manner."

IRRI is the world's leading international rice research and training center. Based in the Philippines and with offices in 11 other countries, it is an autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on improving the
well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers, particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural resources. IRRI is one of 16 Future Harvest centers funded the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies.

For more information, visit the websites of CGIAR or Future Harvest.

Future Harvest is a nonprofit organization that builds awareness and supports food and environmental research for a world with less poverty, a healthier human family, well-nourished children, and a better environment. Future Harvest supports research, promotes partnerships, and sponsors projects that bring the results of agricultural research to rural communities, farmers, and families in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.