Scientists have explored a new way of knowing, how genes work in rice. Plant biologist Blake Meyers at the University of Delaware and colleagues have developed a large dataset of gene sequences in rice!
This information will help understand the genes’ working in rice, and this is vital, as rice is an essential food for much of the world’s population. Both the normal gene expression (via messenger ribonucleic acids, or mRNAs) as well as the small ribonucleic acids (small RNAs) in rice are examined by using advanced gene sequencing technologies. They also used high-powered computer-based approaches for their study.
Gene sequences representing nearly 47 million mRNA molecules and three million small RNAs helped in the rice analysis. On the basis of the information derived from these, a larger dataset has than been reported for any other plant species.