Part 2:
A better rice for the world
Tina Liu
Fastiliy, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 3.0 Unported license, http://commons.wikimedia.org
Grain production increased 250% from 1950
to 1984!
People in developing countries eat 25% more
calories today compared to before the
Green Revolution.
USAID, Copyright © 2007 David Monniaux
Malnut r it ion is st ill wide spre ad
1 in 7 pe ople are
unde r nour ishe d
the future of food
Graeme Dott, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported, http://commons.wikimedia.org/
Malnut r it ion is st ill wide spre ad
More suffe r from
“ m icronut r ie nt ”
de ficie ncy
1 in 7 pe ople are
unde r nour ishe d
the future of food
Graeme Dott, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported, http://commons.wikimedia.org/
H ow can scie nce he lp?
the future of food
Source: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, http://esa.un.org/unpp,
O ur st or y st ar t s in Sout h Asia…
Int'l Rice Research Institute, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic, http://irri.org; Photos by Chris Quintana and Bill Sta. Clara; trokilinochchi, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license,
Monsoon r ains can dam age crops
Int'l Rice Research Institute, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic, http://irri.org; Photos by Chris Quintana and Bill Sta. Clara; trokilinochchi, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license,
Loss of r ice har ve st s has a big im pact in India &
Banglade sh
Int'l Rice Research Institute, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic, http://irri.org
India & Banglade sh supply t he wor ld wit h r ice
Basmati Rice
nt'l Rice Research Institute, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic, http://irri.org
H ow can we preve nt floods from de st roying t he
r ice crop?
“FR13A” is a traditional Indian flood-resistant
rice.
2 – 3 weeks
3 – 5 days
...with caveats.
FR13A rice
Conventional rice
High-yield
Flood-resistant
X
T he Ide al Rice P lant ?
High-yield
Flood-resistant
T he Ide al Rice P lant
High-yield
Flood-resistant
 Difficult to grow in local conditions
 Poor grain quality
 Poor taste
Difficult to separate traits you want from traits you don’t
want…
What can we do?
First, a review of the basics…
DN A is t he “ blue pr int ” for life
DN A
Fasilo, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 2.0 Generic license, http://commons.wikimedia.org
Ge ne s are de fine d pie ce s of DN A
Diffe re nt ge ne s le ad t o diffe re nt t r ait s
purple pigment gene
Cyron Ray Macey from Brisbane, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 2.0 Generic license, http://commons.wikimedia.org
yellow pigment gene
???
FR13A
Submergence 1A gene (Sub1A)
David Mackill, IRRI
FR13A
Pre cision Bre e ding
FR13A
Conventional
What we want:
Identical to the
conventional rice
plant, except for
Sub1A gene
X
Conventional
X
Repeat
X
How do we select the offspring
plants that picked up only the
Sub1A gene?
Offspring plants
Extract their DNA
DNA
1.
DNA
2.
3.
4.
DNA
DNA
Identify patterns or
“markers” in the DNA
What do these markers tell us?
1.
Sub1A gene
2.
Sub1A gene
Poor growth gene
Bad taste gene
Bad taste gene
3.
Sub1A gene
4.
Sub1A gene
Poor growth gene
Bad taste gene
Select the plant that has only the gene you want...
Voila!
4.
Sub1A gene
This type of selection process is called
“Marker-assisted selection.”
Precision Breeding
• Select traits with greater accuracy
• Select traits faster
All with the help of modern genetic
technology!
So, did it work?
Swarna
(conventional)
Swarna-Sub1A
(precision-bred)
b
Xu et al. 2006, Science
IR49830
(floodresistant)
One year later (2007)…
“When I saw Mostafa’s field
flooded, and then saw it recover, I was
surprised—it was like magic,”
ARIEL JAVELLANA, CPS/IRRI, via Science Magazine, http://www.sciencemag.org/; IRRI photos, irri.org, Creative Commons 3.0 license
New flood-resistant rice
putting farmers back in
business in northeast India
Mar 2010, Reuters Alertnet
ARIEL JAVELLANA, CPS/IRRI, via Science Magazine, http://www.sciencemag.org/
Flood re sist ance for t he wor ld?
Guyana developing floodresistant rice
July 2010, International Rice Research Institute
It doesn’t stop there…
Drought resistance
“Perennial rice”
“Golden rice” supplies proVitamin A
Tomas Castelazo, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License; Desmanthus4food & International Rice Research Institute, CC Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported;
T he im por t ance of re se arch…
N ext up:
Ge ne t ically m odifie d plant s…
in your own backyard?
Q ue st ions?
Tomas Castelazo, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, http://commons,wikimedia.org/