The majority of the world's population relies on rice for sustenance, but it is also one of the largest known manmade sources of atmospheric methane. A recent study demonstrates how a genetically modified breed of rice could help cut down these methane emissions. The new research reveals changing a single gene prevents rice from emitting almost any methane from its paddies during growth, and allows them to posses higher levels of desirable qualities such as starchiness and biomass, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reported.
Rice paddies contribute about 100 million tons of the greenhouse gas of methane every year. This new rice, dubbed SUSIBA2, is the first "high-starch, low-methane" ever created. The new breed was achieved by introducing a single gene from barley plants into common rice.
"The need to increase starch content and lower methane emissions from rice production is widely recognized, but the ability to do both simultaneously has eluded researchers," said Christer Jansson, director of plant sciences at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. "As the world's population grows, so will rice production. And as the Earth warms, so will rice paddies, resulting in even more methane emissions. It's an issue that must be addressed."
To demonstrate the beneficial qualities of the new rice, the researchers introduced the transcription factor SUSIBA2 into a popular variety of the food and tested its performance against a non-modified version. Over the course of three years, the researchers observed the genetically modified rice significantly increased crop yields while almost completely eliminating methane emissions.
In the future, the researchers plan to continue tweaking SUSIBA2 and further investigate the mechanisms involved in the crop's benefits. These insights will allow them to assess any potential environmental impacts associated with the modified grain.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
