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SUMMARY:The road to C4 rice - Sarah Covshoff
DTSTART:20100122T130000Z
DTEND:20100122T133000Z
UID:TALK22533@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:15560
DESCRIPTION:In the next 50 years\, Asia’s population will increase by ab
 out 1.5 billion people. To meet higher food demand\, rice yields must rise
  by 50% or mass malnutrition will result. Unfortunately\, current breeding
  schemes have hit a yield barrier and climate change is starting to advers
 ely affect growing conditions. The C4 pathway is a specialization of photo
 synthesis found in many cultivated tropical grass species such as maize an
 d sugarcane. Relative to rice and other C3 plants\, C4 species have double
  the water use efficiency\, use 40% less nitrogen\, and achieve 50% higher
  yields. Therefore\, inserting the C4 pathway into rice may increase produ
 ction enough to mitigate growing demand. To make C4 photosynthetic rice po
 ssible\, the biology of rice must be altered by: 1) incorporating known C4
  enzymes into the rice genome and characterising their effect on physiolog
 y and anatomy 2) identifying genes regulating the development of C4 anatom
 y and biochemistry. These lines of research are being performed in paralle
 l in collaboration with the C4 Rice Consortium lead by the International R
 ice Research Institute in the Philippines.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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