Los Baños, Philippines (30th January 2018) — The genome sequencing of seven wild rice varieties has finally been completed. This breakthrough is expected to provide opportunities for breeders worldwide in developing better rice varieties that will respond to the changing needs of the farmers and the consumers.

This discovery is outlined in the article Genomes of 13 domesticated and wild rice relatives highlight genetic conservation, turnover and innovation across the genus Oryza published by Nature Genetics. The study details the generation of seven wild and two cultivated genomes (IR8 and N22). The IR8, popularly known as “miracle rice,” was developed by rice scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IR8 was one of the rice varieties that ushered in the Green Revolution in Asia during the 1960s and prevented worldwide starvation and famine.



http://irri.org/news/media-releases/w ... lthier-climate-smart-rice

SAN DIEGO (GenomeWeb) – A University of New South Wales-led team has sequenced and assembled a desert dingo genome de novo in the hopes of untangling canine domestication in general, along with the dingo's own history in Australia.

UNSW biotechnology and biomedical sciences researcher Bill Ballard presented the work during a PacBio workshop at the Plant and Animal Genome conference here yesterday. He noted that the research follows from pioneering work by the late Alan Wilton, a geneticist at the UNSW, who established a large dingo DNA repository.

https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/d ... me-progress-presented-pag

Endowed chair Rod Wing takes aim at world hunger

http://arizonaalumni.com/article/genome-genius

http://tucson.com/news/science/ua-res ... 50-8315-e040ebc78cb9.html

UA researchers have pioneered a new approach that could save millions of tons of crops each year from contamination with aflatoxin, a major threat to health and food security especially in developing parts of the world.

https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/small ... d-play-role-food-security

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Miracle Rice (IR-8) the Arizona Genomics Institute (AGI) (www.genome.arizona.edu) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) (www.irri.org) is proud to release* a reference genome assembly of IR-8 using PacBio RSII sequencing technology.

This work was funded by the AXA Research Fund to R.A.W. through IRRI.

(*Please note that our GenBank submission (MPPV00000000) is released under the Ft. Lauderdale agreement whereby the AGI/IRRI team reserves the right to publish a detailed analysis of the IR-8 in a forthcoming publication.)

Lee Allen, Contributing Writer

It’s almost universally agreed that a perfect storm is developing and agriculture faces a gargantuan task - feeding the world’s population expected to approach the 10 billion mark by 2050.

And if that’s doable, the challenge is how to accomplish this while wrestling with variables including less land, water, farmer numbers, plus the impact of climate change.

The Arizona Genomics Institute (AGI) reports, “With increasing competition for land, water, and other resources, breeders must develop the next generation of crops that have less negative environmental impact and fewer input requirements.”

The Institute, based in Tucson adds, “Crops will be needed that grow with less water, fertilizer, pesticides, on poorer soils, and with less labor - and still produce high-yielding and highly-nutritious foods.”

The Rice Transposable Element database (RiTE-db) collects repeated sequences and transposable elements (TEs) of several species of the Oryza (rice) genus, and the closely-related Leersia perrieri. In the current version, it contains more than 260,000 characterized sequences, of which 110,000 are full-length elements. Sequences can be browsed and downloaded, and all datasets are usable for remote Blast. All sequences can be used for scientific research upon citation of the source; the database is available at www.genome.arizona.edu/rite/

Rice will remain the primary source of food for half of the world, but the world's population is expected to grow by more than two billion in the next 35 years.


Rod Wing explains the rice genome for the specific genus Oryza and how this information will lead to better crops and more food production for growing populations. (Photo: Christina Close/BIO5 Institute)
http://uanews.org/story/ua-s-rice-sym ... m-tackles-people-question

An international team of researchers led by the University of Arizona has sequenced the complete genome of African rice.

The genetic information will enhance scientists' and agriculturalists' understanding of the growing patterns of African rice, as well as enable the development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental stressors to help solve global hunger challenges.