By Pongpen Sutharoj, The Nation via Checkbiotech

To improve rice quality and yields, the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) has developed new breeds of jasmine rice that are tolerant of drought, pests and disease.

The new rice breeds are the result of a research project on rice genomes. Understanding the rice genome will help scientists to develop new rice varieties with traits such as higher yield, improved nutrition content, and better resistance to diseases and pests.

Biotec’s director Morakot Tanticharoen said the centre’s researchers had applied information from the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, which cracked the genome of the Japanese aromatic rice Nipponbare, to develop new breeds of Thai rice.

The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project is a collaborative project among 10 nations to break the genetic code of rice. Thailand is also one of the participants, along with the United States, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Britain, France, Brazil and India.

The results of the study have been put in the public domain, so any country can use them in its own developments.

Morakot said the researchers used the information to further develop jasmine rice. Even though the rice genome information in the project is based on Japanese rice, she said the genome information could also be adapted to other species including jasmine rice, as the DNA structures of individual rice species do not vary greatly.

The centre has studied sequence data from the project to develop a new breed of rice that can resist flooding, a major problem for rice farmers as it causes damage and loss of productivity.

Morakot said the new breed has already been tested in many provinces and the result was satisfactory. “We found that our new breed can resist flooding well. It offers higher productivity at 303 kilograms per rai, compared to the old breed that provides only 50 kilograms per rai,” she said.

In addition to flood tolerance, the centre has also developed two other breeds of jasmine rice.

They can resist bacterial leaf blight and leaf blast disease, which are major threats.

The director said the two breeds were also being tested. However, to further improve jasmine rice, the team is now working to combine three key traits - resistance to drought, bacterial leaf blight, and leaf blast disease - into one breed so the new breed could tolerate every situation. The project is likely to move into field trials next year.

From the study of rice genomes, Morakot said the research team could also understand the DNA sequence of jasmine rice that offered its unique fragrance.

“From this knowledge we can develop a process to turn rice with no fragrance into fragrant rice,” she said.

The centre has submitted a patent registration for the process and it’s now waiting for approval. The centre also plans further study on rice genomes to give rice special qualities, for example finding genes related to the quality of rice when cooked in different ways.

This, Morakot said, would bring more added value to Thai rice for export.

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