Researchers develop new rice variety to increase production by 27%

Chinese researchers said they managed to increase rice yields by 27% by altering the metabolism of a variety of rice.

For this, the researchers used rice genes: they placed them elsewhere in their genome, which increases the ability of the plant to perform photosynthesis.

The researchers, under the supervision of Shen Xiang Peng of the Guangzhou South China Agricultural University, published the details of this method in the latest issue of the journal "Molicular Planet", specializing in the dissemination of agricultural research .

"The food shortage will become a serious problem in the future, and the planet will have to face the light of its growing population," Ping said, quoted by the magazine.

"This process, in which the plant produces glucose from carbon dioxide, water and solar energy as a source of primary energy, also produces. ethylene glycol, "he said. , A toxic substance that the plant must analyze through a stressful process, known as the process of light breathing, during which the plant produces much of its energy.

The researchers said the crop could also be expanded if its genetically modified seeds were better grown. In the first stage, its growth was significantly lower than that of wild-type seeds, and continued attempts were being made to determine why the growth rate of this modified rice would overcome this defect and increase the ability of the plant to produce grain. his maximum pace.

American researchers have recently announced in a scientific journal a similar principle, that the photogenic respiration of genetically modified tobacco is reduced and that carbon dioxide is added to green plastids.

But the team of researchers, under the supervision of Donald Ort of the University of Illinois, Urbana of America, was used to modify tobacco-specific genetic genes, particularly large genes and extracted genes. of a species of green algae.