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Re-Engineering
Photosynthesis in Rice to Ease the Threat of
Hunger
An ambitious project to re-engineer photosynthesis in rice has
been launched, under the leadership of the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI), working through a global consortium of scientists. As a
result of research being conducted by this group, rice plants that
can produce 50 percent more grain, using less fertilizer and less
water, are a step closer to reality.
| Currently, more than a billion people worldwide
live on less than a dollar a day and nearly one billion live in
hunger. Over the next 50 years, the population of the world will
increase by about 50 percent, and water scarcity, which already
afflicts a third of the world's population, will grow. Since
about half of the world's people consume rice as a staple
cereal, boosting its productivity is crucial to achieving long-term
food security. IRRI is leading the effort to achieve a major
increase in global rice production by using modern molecular tools
to develop a more efficient and higher yielding form of rice. |
A handheld microscope helps search for
C4 characteristics in wild rice species. Photo: IRRI.
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Photosynthesis, the process by which plants use solar energy to
capture carbon dioxide and convert it into the carbohydrates
required for growth, is not the same for all plants. Some species,
including rice, have a mode of photosynthesis (known as C3) in
which the capture of carbon dioxide is relatively inefficient.
Other plants, such as maize and sorghum, have evolved a much more
efficient form of photosynthesis known as C4.
 According to IRRI scientist and project leader John
Sheehy (pictured on left), in tropical climates the efficiency of
solar energy conversion of crops using so-called C4 photosynthesis
is about 50 percent higher than that of C3 crops. Given the demands
from an increasing population, combined with less available land
and water, adequate future supplies of rice will need to come in
large part through substantial yield boosts and more efficient use
of crop inputs.
"Converting the photosynthesis of rice from the
less-efficient C3 form to the C4 form would increase yields by 50
percent," said Sheehy, adding that C4 rice would also use
water twice as efficiently.
In developing tropical countries, where billions of poor people
rely on rice as their staple food, "the benefits of such an
improvement in the face of increasing world population, rising food
prices and strained natural resources would be immense. This is a
long-term, complex project that will take a decade or more to
complete," Sheehy said.
The project is supported by a three-year, $11 million grant from
the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. It has the potential to better
the lives of millions of small farmers and their families by
boosting productivity and increasing incomes.
The C4 Rice Consortium combines the strengths of a range of
partners, including molecular biologists, geneticists,
physiologists, biochemists and mathematicians, representing leading
research organizations worldwide. Members include Yale, Cornell,
Florida, and Washington State universities in the USA; Oxford,
Cambridge, Dundee, Nottingham and Sheffield universities in the UK;
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO), Australian National University and James Cook University
in Australia; Heinrich Heine University and the Institute for
Biology in Germany; Jiangsu Academy in China; the University of
Toronto in Canada; and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
of the United Nations.
 Photos
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Using a handheld microscope to search
for C4 characteristics in Wild Rice Species. Photo: IRRI.
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