The report of the accurate genome sequence of rice show up as the cover story in Nature on Nov. 21. (picture: Nature)
The internationally prestigious journal Nature highlights the complete sequence of the rice's chromosomes No.1 and No.4 on the cover of its Nov. 21 issue. The breakthrough was accomplished by Japanese and Chinese scientists respectively.
The genome sequence of the Chromosome No.4 was designated to the State Center of Gene Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The project's participants include the National Center for Human Genome Research in South China, CAS Institute of Genetics and Development Biology, Yangzhou University
et al. By adopting the clone-by-clone approach, the team presented the complete sequence of chromosome 4 to an accuracy of greater than 99.99%. The sequencing in the round-grained rice (
Oryza sativa) is so far the greatest sequencing work ever achieved by the Chinese mainland scientists on a single chromosome and its results are entirely up to the international norms set for the genome-mapping process.
The research feat enables scientists to gain a great host of genetic information including the positioning of some valuable functional genes. The latter provide a solid foundation for breeding new strains of the rice with high-yield, top-quality, adversity resistance, anti-pest or other superb characters. In addition, the work is conducive to the understanding of related genetic messages in wheat, corn and other cereals so that the whole discipline of crop genomics might be galvanized in a big way.
