Genetic Modification - Gene Silencing Using Artificial miRNAs Could Mean Better Rice
Mar 19th, 2008 by Axel
Genetic modification holds the promise of bringing locally grown food crops to climates where farming has been traditionally difficult. Doing that means optimizing the genetics of crops in some ways without impacting them in others.
A new tool for rice genetics has made that a little bit easier. It allows rice breeders to surgically inactivate genes that confer unwanted properties.
There are many different strains of rice grown in different parts of the world and they have thrived because they are adapted to the region they grow in. In the past, introducing a gene with a beneficial modification would require years and years of breeding so that the other genes responsible for the target strains being so well adapted to their local environment were not impacted.