Prof. Motoyuki Ashikari and his research group at the Bioscience and Biotechnology Center, Nagoya University, have discovered a gene that can control the size of rice seed, or the rice grain size. By using conventional cross-breeding technology and a molecular marker, this discovery can be expected to enhance grain weight, yield, and plant biomass in rice. It will improve rice-breeding, which is especially vital for mitigating the impending food crisis.
This research achievement was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on January 6, 2015.
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