Researchers at University of Hyderabad (UoH) Develop Transgenic Rice

The scientists of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) in collaboration with scientists from China and Canada have yielded new transgenic rice, which has a promising commercial potential. According to researchers, the rice variety does not lead to enhanced economic potential in the form of productivity. This particular kind of rice variety has the ability to utilise the water more efficiently. The researchers have started to work on this collaborative project last year and finally succeeded in developing transgenic rice.

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Explaining about the latest development, Dr. P.B. Kiriti, who was also the part of project and professor at Department of Plant Sciences (UoH) said that the new rice variety was developed by transferring a gene from a commonly occurring flowering plant, i.e., Arabidopsis Thaliana into Samba Masuri. He further explained that Arabidopsis gene is famous for its involvement in regulating the growth and development of plants. The speciality of the transgenic rice crop is that it saves the water that is utilized for cultivation, and farmers can cultivate the other crops. The transgenic rice also maintains high levels of chlorophyll that helps plants to grow effectively, he added.

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Dr. Kirity also indicated that transgenic rice crop cultivation would be an advantage to farmers, as it gives more yield per unit area and reduces the consumption of electricity. Farmers can adopt transgenic rice cultivation under commercial farming after proper testing by the regulatory authorities.

Researchers from various renowned universities including National Research Council of Canada, University of Agricultural Sciences (Bengaluru), Agricultural University (Hyderabad) and Agriculture Sciences University (China) took part in this project.