RiceNet: Better grain, new biofuel crops

Futurity
Science & Technology - Posted by Pat Bailey-UC Davis on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 12:16

UC DAVIS (US) — The first genome-scale model for predicting gene function in rice is expected to speed up development of new crops for biofuels—and improve the quality of one of the world’s most important food staples.

With RiceNet, instead of working on one gene at a time based on data from a single experimental set, we can predict the function of entire networks of genes, as well as entire genetic pathways that regulate a particular biological process,” says Pamela Ronald, professor of plant pathology at University of California, Davis and director of the grass genetics program within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute.

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