Rice is a staple food for over half the world's population and provides over a quarter of dietary energy and protein in developing countries. Modern farming technologies like semi-dwarf and nitrogen responsive varieties have led to 84% of rice production growth. Over 2000 modern varieties have been commercially released in Asia over 40 years, gradually incorporating biotic and abiotic stress resistances. Agricultural biotechnology can increase crop productivity, improve nutrition, and broaden stress tolerance in rice. Molecular markers and transgenic technologies allow introduction of traits like herbicide and stress resistance and enhanced nutrition into rice. Golden rice was developed using genes from daffodil and bacteria to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a vitamin A precursor, addressing deficiencies

2. Presented by
Faisal Hussain

3.  Rice is the staple food for more than three
billion people, over half the world’s population. It
provides 27% of dietary energy and 20% of
dietary protein in the developing world.
 About 84% of the rice –production growth has
been attributed to modern farming technologies
such a as varieties that are semi-dwarf, early
maturing, non-photoperiod sensitive and
responsive to nitrogen (N) fertilizer.

4.  More than 2000 modern varieties have been
commercially released in twelve countries of south
and southeast Asia over the past 40 years.
Gradually resistances and tolerances to biotic and
abiotic stresses were incorporated into many of
these varieties.

5.  Biotechnology” generally refers to genetic
manipulation at the DNA level
 Biotechnology refers to specialized fermentation
processes, in vitro culture techniques such as
embryo rescue and double haploidization and
protein engineering

6.  In Asia agricultural biotechnology has been
recognized as having the potential to
 increase crop and animal productivity,
 improve nutritional quality of food,
 broaden tolerance of crops for drought, salinity, and
other abiotic stresses,
 increase resistance of crops to pests and diseases

7.  The use of molecular markers for identifying and
introgression favorable genes and gene
combinations within rice species, and the use of
transgenic technologies to incorporate traits for
herbicide tolerance, biotic stress resistance and
nutritional value into rice.

8. Early molecular markers for rice improvement were:
 Construction of dense genetic maps using different
populations
 Tagging and/or introgression of major genes and those
underlying quantitative traits, referred to as quantitative
trait loci(QTL).
 High-resolution characterization and fingerprinting of
germplasm
 Assessment of the diversity of germplasm pools, and
map-based gene cloning.
 Construction of dense genetic maps using different
populations

9.  Molecular markers offered great potential for
increasing the precision and speed of rice
breeding.
 They permitted screening for traits that were
extremely difficult, expensive, or time consuming
to score phenotypically
 They distinguished the heterozygous condition
without need for progeny testing molecular
markers.
 Powerful tools to dissect the inheritance of
economically important traits many of which are
quantitatively inherited and complex in nature

10. It has applications in the
following areas
herbicide tolerance,
biotic-stress resistance,
abiotic-stress resistance; and
nutritional traits.

11.  Golden rice is a variety of Oryza sativa rice
produced through genetic engineering to
biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor of
vitamin A, in the edible parts of rice. The
research was conducted with the goal of
producing a fortified food to be grown and
consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary
vitamin A, which is estimated to kill 670,000
children under 5 each year.

12.  PSY (phytoene synthase): from daffodil
(Narcissus pseudo narcissus)
 Crtl from the soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora

13. A japonica variety of rice was engineered with three
genes necessary for the rice grain to produce and
store beta-carotene. These included two genes from
the daffodil plant and a third from a bacterium.
Researchers used a plant microbe to ferry in the
genes into the plant cells. The incorporation of these
genes allows the rice plant to modify certain
metabolic pathways in its cells to produce
precursors of Vitamin A.

15.  Disease/Pest Resistance around 40 %
 Climate Change Resistance e.g. floods and
droughts
 Enhanced Nutrition, to help with the world's
malnutrition