Wednesday, August 10, 2005

bookmark: connotea :: del.icio.us ::digg ::furl ::reddit ::yahoo::

BBC Rice genome unravelled at last

"Scientists have unscrambled the genetic code of rice, a development that could help end hunger around the world, Nature magazine reports this week."

"It took seven years to complete the work and the results are already accelerating discovery. Scientists have used the sequence to identify genes that control fundamental processes, such as flowering."

redux [12.19.02]
Genomeweb International Collaboration Announces Draft Sequence of Rice Genome

Scientists today announced the completion of a draft of the rice genome Oryza sativa japonica ."

""The rice genome's sequence is crucial to our scientific understanding of the staples of life," Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, said in a statement. "With this data we open new doors at all levels of research [including] universities, private industry and government.""

redux [09.06.02]
BBC News Rice code is 'greatest achievement'

"Unravelling the blueprint of rice may be the most important breakthrough genetic science has achieved."

"Because rice is mankind's most important food crop - the staple diet for half of humanity - the researchers say reading its genome is of more importance than decoding mankind's own genetic code."

redux [04.06.02]
The New York Times Experts Say They Have Key to Rice Genes
[requires 'free' registration]

"Rice is "the Rosetta stone of the cereals," Dr. Wing said. Once researchers have found an important gene in rice, they can look for its counterpart in other crop plants, or insert the rice gene itself since the genes of all these crops are thought to be largely interchangeable."

"Syngenta has already developed a microchip holding an array of DNA fragments that recognizes some 24,000 rice genes and can tell which genes are switched on at each stage of the plant's development. Because of corn's genetic similarity to rice, the rice gene chip can also recognize 90 percent of the genes in corn.""

redux [03.28.02]
The Washington Post Swiss Firm Plans to Share Rice Genome

"One of the world's largest agricultural companies is putting finishing touches on a plan to make public huge amounts of genetic information about the rice plant, an effort to accelerate research aimed at improving one of mankind's most important crops."

"The plan Syngenta is working on is, in part, an effort to stave off an incipient controversy."

GenomeWeb Science to Print Part of Syngenta's Rice Genome; Consortium May Get Data-Sharing Deall

"Syngenta's decision to share some data with the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project may help to quiet a growing controversy about public access to data gathered through privately funded sequence projects. But the decision by Science to allow Syngenta to publish without making its data available in Genbank will undoubtedly spur further debate."

redux [03.19.02]
New Scientist Fears over rice genome access

"Prominent gene researchers fear that access to the complete DNA sequence of rice, the world's most important food crop, will be restricted when it is published in a scientific journal."

"Science says the issue is complex. "We have to weigh the benefit of publishing some data so that it is in the public domain or having it all deposited as privately held trade secrets," says Science spokesperson Ginger Pinholster. "In the case of the human genome it was felt that publishing was the best option - for rice, the case is even stronger.""

Independent News Geneticists protest at DNA of rice becoming a trade secret

"Twenty leading geneticists are protesting against a deal that will allow a multinational company to control who has access to the complete DNA sequence of the rice genome - the most important food crop in the developing world.

The scientists, who include British Nobel laureates Sir Paul Nurse and Sir Aaron Klug, are up in arms against a plan to lock away the entire rice sequence on a company database rather than having it published in the open scientific literature."