| NIAB funding for rice genetics research |
| Written by News Desk | |
| Wednesday, 19 March 2008 | |
 From left – Prof Wayne Powell, chief executive of NIAB; Konstantina Stamati, NIAB project leader; and Bob Zeigler, director of the International Rice Research Institute. Rice is the staple food for over two billion people, but lack of water and disease limit its production across the developing world. NIAB says there is an urgent need for new breeds of rice that can cope with changing climatic conditions and to improve food security across the developing world. NIAB has received £733,000 for a three year project it will lead in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines that will focus on rice genetics, leading to the creation of climate resistant strains of rice for Africa and Asia. The research team will look at the genetic make up of rice as well as its genetic expression to identify genes which may be crucial in developing new types of rice resilient to climate change and diseases. Though the inherited make-up of rice is well understood, the researchers will use new techniques more commonly used in human and animal studies to look at gene expression in rice in response to different conditions. By doing this they hope to identify genes which are naturally tolerant to climate extremes and diseases and go onto use this knowledge to develop rice breeding programmes in Africa and Asia. BBSRC interim chief executive, Steve Visscher, said: “These projects will build on the world-leading research on fundamental plant science and plant disease in the UK and apply this to crops of importance in the developing world, increasing yields and helping to alleviate the suffering of millions living in poverty.”
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