Asia-Pacific Biotech News

The article is about the success story of jumpstarting genomic projects and participation in the Human Genome Project. It touches on international collaborations and the launch of the Rice Genome Project.

The article is about the sequencing of the rice genome, benefits of biotechnology, beyond rice breeding, financial constraint, the cooperation with private sector, public-privatization act, International Functional Genomics Working Group and the training of the scientists.

Rice genomics data are rapidly expanding in number and complexity. This is further intensified as the international collaboration aimed at sequencing the entire genome accelerates the release of sequence data to the public domain. An overview of available resources for processing, elucidating and propagating genomic information in rice is described here. As the genome sequencing nears its completion, the future challenges in rice bioinformatics lies in developing an informatics infrastructure that would facilitate integration across various data types and sources, and eventually lead to the development of viable strategies for improvement of rice and other major cereal crops.

The article is about the Rice Genome Microarray Project, DNA probes for the microarray analysis and the rice full-length cDNA project and the activities of the microarray center.

The article is about the rice functional genomics. There are details on the generation of T-DNA insertional mutant lines in rice, insertional lines for the isolation of mutants, how T-DNA vector can be used for entrapping tissue-specific genes and promoters, and the generation of database for T-DNA flanking sequences.

Transposable elements are powerful mutagens. Along with genomic sequences, knock-out phenotypes and expression patterns are important information to elucidate the function of genes. In this review, I propose a strategy to develop tranposant lines on a large scale by combining genetic cross and tissue culture of Ac and Ds lines. Based on the facts that Ds tends to be inactive in F2 or later generation and Ds becomes reactivated via tissue culture, a large scale of transposants can be produced by tissue culture of seeds carrying Ac and inactive Ds. In this review, I describe limitations and considerations in operating transposon tagging systems in rice. Also, I discuss the efficiency of our gene trap system and technical procedures to clone Ds flanking DNA.

Identifying functions for the predicted 25 000 to 40 000 plant genes is the new focus of genomic research following the sequencing of genomes from model plants like Arabidopsis and rice. It is important that researchers and plant breeders especially from Asian countries access the techniques and resources of plant functional genomics, not only to remain competitive globally in rice research and development activities, but also to increase yields by alleviating some of the rice production constraints. These newly identified genes and gene control sequences can be used in transformation breeding and as molecular markers in classical plant breeding.

At CSIRO Plant Industry we are using an insertional mutagenesis approach in rice to relate genes to their functions. With national and international collaboration we hope to create a substantial "Rice Gene Machine" comprised of many thousands of rice insertion lines with their associated phenotypes and the gene sequences flanking insertion sites identified. This Rice Gene Machine will allow the identification of gene functions, which will benefit rice research and the rice industry for years to come.

The article is about the future of rice cultivation in China and outside China. It also touches on the economic assessment and the extent of adoption of technology.

The article is about the rice biotech research at the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute.

A coordinated international effort to sequence agricultural and livestock genomes has come to its time. While human genome and genomes of many model organisms (related to human health and basic biological interests) have been sequenced or plugged in the sequencing pipelines, agronomically important crop and livestock genomes have not been given high enough priority.

Although we are facing many challenges in policy-making, grant funding, regional task emphasis, research community consensus and technology innovations, many initiatives are being announced and formulated based on the cost-effective and large-scale sequencing procedure, known as whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing that produces draft sequences covering a genome from 95 percent to 99 percent.

Identified genes from such draft sequences, coupled with other resources, such as molecular markers, large-insert clones and cDNA sequences, provide ample information and tools to further our knowledge in agricultural and environmental biology in the genome era that just comes to its accelerated period.

If the campaign succeeds, molecular biologists, geneticists and field biologists from all countries, rich or poor, would be brought to the same starting point and expect another astronomical increase of basic genomic information, ready to convert effectively into knowledge that will ultimately change our lives and environment into a greater and better future. We call upon national and international governmental agencies and organizations as well as research foundations to support this unprecedented movement.