This will give scientists the potential to dramatically improve the production of rice, a vital food source for half of the world's population.
Rice is the largest genome and first plant to be mapped in a working draft form.
Rice is important because it is a model species for learning about traits such as yield, hybrid vigor, and single and multigenic disease resistance of all grass plants including wheat and corn. In addition, deciphering the genetic code of rice is expected to lead to development of new varieties of rice that will produce greater yields, be more resistant to pests and disease, and grow in different types of climates and soils. The UW rice genome project was directed by Dr. Leroy Hood and managed by Dr. Gregory G. Mahairas. Hood currently is president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Mahairas is the director of the High Throughput Sequencing Center in the UW's Department of Molecular Biotechnology.