New rice variety: Less water, higher yield

Thanh Van

An international team of scientists has produced a kind of rice that can grow better and use water more efficiently than other rice varieties. Professor Andy Pereira of the Virginia Bioinformatics VBI Institute is conducting research with colleagues in India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Mexico and the Netherlands to identify and use a gene called HARDY , a gene that can improve Improve the main characteristics of this important cereal variety.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences, has demonstrated that the HARDY gene contributes to efficient water use in rice, the main food source for more than the world's population.

Rice is a water-absorbing plant much more than other crops. It uses 3 times more water than other food crops like corn or wheat and consumes about 30% of the freshwater used for crops around the world. In rare water conditions, it is important to grow plants that are capable of producing Biomass (biomass energy, or energy from organic materials) effectively and using only a limited amount of water. .

(Artwork: as.wn.com) HARDY rice shows a significant increase in biomass in both drought and non-drought conditions. Scientists found that the biomass of HARDY rice increased by about 50% in the absence of water (drought) compared to its unmodified rice variety.

Dr. Andy Pereira, VBI professor said: 'The interdisciplinary research project involves studying two types of plants. First, we used a mutation test technique to increase the function of studying a large number of Arabidopsis plants, a type of cruciferous mustard plant that can bring beneficial traits to resistance. water and against drought. Molecular and physiological determinations show that improved water use efficiency is related to the HARDY gene ".

Dr. Aarati Karaba commented: 'The next step is to transplant the HARDY gene into rice and examine the traits that arise from this transformation.'

In rice, HARDY seems to work in a slightly different way than in Arabidopsis, but it still improves water efficiency and increases biomass. Further studies have demonstrated that HARDY significantly increases the photosynthetic capacity of rice while at the same time reducing water loss from plants.

Dr. Andy Pereira added: ' Chip microarray analysis (DNA microarray) allows us to study the expression patterns regulated by HARDY genes. We focus specifically on genes called ontology (GO), which are considered by the scientific community to have specific biological processes or functions. We identified a known set of genes regulated by the HARDY gene, which has a degree of variation in conditions of water shortage. We also noticed a marked change in the set of genes involved in the metabolism of key proteins and carbohydrates, which may explain some of the differences in traits that we have discovered. out in Arabidopsis and rice. '

Scientists have tracked improvements in water use efficiency and detected a specific type of molecule, known as AP2 / ERF-like transcription factor. Transcription factors are proteins that control gene expression and the HARDY gene that decodes a protein that belongs to the type of AP2 / ERF-like transcription factors.

Shital Dixit, a graduate student at the Institute of International Plant Research Wageningen (Netherlands), commented: 'At this time, we do not know the exact function of the factor of copying this code despite doubting that It affects the maturation process associated with tissue drying. But it is clear that HARDY rice improves water efficiency and is resistant to drought in rice and perhaps other grain and seed crops. This will contribute to sustained high yields in the context of limited water supply. '