Chinese scientists find key gene to increase rice yield

Chinese scientists have found a gene that could be key in breeding an ideotype of rice and allowing maximum production of the grain.

An ideotype refers to the idealized appearance and most productive variety of a plant variety.

Scientists around the world have long worked to find ways to increase rice production. Some key genes affecting rice productivity have already been identified and cloned, but the genetic basis of yield-related traits in rice remains unclear.

The research conducted by Chinese scientists and published on Friday worked on a gene they called NPT1, which was found in some rice varieties and has the ability to increase the rice yield potential.

The production of rice will rise even higher after NPT1 is injected into a current high-yield rice variety and combined with another gene called DEP1 that enhances grain yield.

The NPT1 is a step closer to an ideotype of rice and helps increase yield. /VCG Photo

"Before that we did not know which gene controls the plant, so the breeding of an ideotype could not be populated,” said Fu Xiangdong from the Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Now as we have found the NPT1 which brings convenience to our breeding work, it will be easier for us to breed high-yield rice".

The team led by Fu and Qian Qian from the Rice Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences isolated and cloned the NPT1 from the DNA of a variety of an ideotype from the International Rice Research Institute and a Chinese breed called “Chunjiang 06”.

The team cooperated with specialists on breeding and will cultivate new breeds of high-yield rice in two or three years, according to Fu who also said they will carry out international cooperation to popularize the technology in other areas.

(CGTN's Zhou Jingwen contributed to this story)