Climate Change Resilient and Water-Efficient Rice

Rice is an essential and fastest-growing staple food in more than half of the world’s population, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin American countries.  

Rice researchers are finding possible strategies to develop resilient rice crop varieties that can withstand climate change effects like a rise in temperature, drought, and salinity due to saltwater intrusion in low-lying coastal areas, recognizing their role in feeding a vast number of the global population.

According to researchers, rice uses a less efficient C3 photosynthetic pathway. Introducing the more efficient C4 photosynthesis traits into rice will double water use efficiency, increase photosynthetic efficiency by 50%, and improve nitrogen uptake.

The study appeared in the Plant Biotechnology Journal. Dr Maria Ermakova, one of the study’s lead authors, says they have assembled five genes from maize that code for five enzymes in the C4 photosynthetic pathway into a single gene construct and installed it into rice plants.

Although introducing all the genes that will make C4 rice is still a long way off, this is the first paper that they have assembled on functional C4 biochemistry in rice, which is a promising development.

The old approach took several years to insert a single gene each time. Still, using synthetic biology, scientists could inject several genes simultaneously and make prototypes of plants in just a few months.

A significant development is that scientists have mastered the technology that could speed up the process of creating C4 rice.

This new finding has significant implications for rice crop production, especially in arid places and water-scarce and drought-prone areas.

It could strengthen food security in drought- and heat-prone areas and support resilience to climate change.

To read the entire study, click the link in the “Source” section below.

PHOTO CREDIT: “Planting rice with colourful umbrellas” by Dr. Nani Araneta de Leon