Beijing, China
March 24, 2009
Source:
Xinhua via
Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Chinese scientists announced on
Monday that they have identified a gene that has played a key
role in increasing the yield of China's high-yielding super
rice.
The gene is known as DEP1, but its mutant is called dep1, which
can accelerate the division of rice cells and produce more
grains per panicle. The mutant will become an important tool for
rice breeding.
Researcher Fu Xiangdong, from the Institute of Genetics and
Developmental Biology of the
Chinese
Academy of Sciences, said his team has found the gene dep1
in high-yielding rice varieties grown in vast quantities in the
Yangtze Plains and northeastern China.
Fu also said the gene can have a similar function in other crops
such as wheat and barley, raising hopes of breeding
high-yielding cereal varieties.
A research paper has been accepted by the journal
Nature Genetics and
already appears in its Advance Online Publication.
China's Ministry of Agriculture launched the project of super
rice strains in 1996, which has brought about many high-yielding
rice varieties since then. The yields of some varieties now
could exceed 12,000 kilograms per hectare. |
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