Researchers from Sweden create genetically modified rice with higher yields and lower greenhouse gas emissions

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    Rice fields

    Researchers from the Swedish Agricultural University inserted a gene from barley into rice , which allowed them to obtain a crop that is characterized by an increased yield and a lower emission of methane, a gas involved in enhancing the greenhouse effect.

    The roots of rice growing in flooded rice fields release organic matter. These substances serve as food for microorganisms that emit methane in the course of their life. Of course, farmers are not concerned about this, but about rice productivity - but scientists are just worried about global warming and the greenhouse effect, in which emissions of CH 4 play an important role .

    A study conducted back in 2002, suggested a win-win solution for all sides of the problem: if you bring out rice with smaller roots, and with the top part more, then the yields will increase, and methane will not be released so actively.

    This is exactly what our heroes managed to do - scientists Yong Su, Changkuan Hu and Xiao Yang. The SUSIBA2 barley gene causes rice to redistribute energy so that the upper part of the plant, including seeds, grows much more active due to the fact that more carbohydrates accumulate in the upper part of the plant.

    According to the results of experiments in which a genetically modified culture was grown under various climatic conditions in China, it turned out that methane production decreased by 90% to 99%, due to a significant decrease in the number of microbes. And productivity due to a more powerful upper part increases by about 50%.

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    Above is the root of GMO rice, below is the root. One can see the difference in the number of microorganisms.

    The methane content in the atmosphere is small (% 0.0002 by volume), and for a long time they did not attach any importance to its effect on the greenhouse effect. But then it turned out that this greenhouse gas has the ability to absorb infrared radiation of the earth’s surface much more strongly than carbon dioxide of the same mass, and its content in the atmosphere is growing rapidly. At the same time, rice fields with their microorganisms are the largest source of methane, their contribution is about 25% of all methane that appears in the atmosphere.

    The work, published in the journal Nature, was commented by Paul Baudelier, a researcher from the Netherlands Institute for the Ecology of Microorganisms. In general, he gave a positive assessment to the work of specialists at the Swedish institute, but drew attention to the need for further experiments that would confirm the possibility of the widespread dissemination of a new culture. The ecological balance is a very complex thing, and a serious decrease in the number of microbes can affect other aspects of crop growth - for example, the need to increase the number of fertilizers or to reduce the resistance of the crop to disease.

    But thanks to opponents of genetically modified products, panicky afraid of all cultures obtained "in vitro", even after successful testing, such rice will not be able to immediately be sold to farmers for sowing.As one of the researchers explained in an interview , they will have to bring out exactly the same rice in the “usual” breeding way. It will be exactly the same, and even contain the same gene - but such a “traditional” method will be more acceptable to society. And this process is not fast, and can take from 5 to 10 years of work.

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