London - The entire genetic code for the crop that feeds half the planet has been unravelled by the European agribusiness giant Syngenta and an American firm that patented two breast cancer genes, it was announced yesterday. They finished the project two years ahead of a publicly-funded consortium of scientists in Japan, China, Korea, Europe and the US.
Rice is the first crop plant, and only the second plant of any kind, to be sequenced. This means scientists now have the grain's entire 430million-letter DNA code to an accuracy of 99.5 per cent.
In that code could be up to 50,000 genes which will almost certainly hold the secrets of higher yields, better pest-resistance and richer nourishment for the three billion for whom rice is a staple of survival. The researchers promised seeds with new properties in about five years.