Transgenic Rice Plants Overexpressing Certain Proteins Show Enhanced Grain Size

Key Problem and Market Opportunity

Rice is considered the most important food crop, acting as a daily necessity for more than three billion people globally, and of all cereals, rice has the second largest production after maize.
In 2014, rice was cultivated on ~162 million hectares, and in 2016/2017, over 43 million tons were traded worldwide.
From 1966 to 2000, rice production rose by 130%, but to satisfy the expansion of the global population, it must be further enhanced to 852 million tons by 2035.
Although, there has been some research to identify genes that can improve the grain size and weight, however, none of them can simultaneously increase both.
Therefore, identification of a gene that when overexpressed can increase the grain size and weight in rice would represent a significant advancement.

Key Advantages of the Technology

The current technology describes a method of increasing grain size, weight, and/or lipid content in grain bran or whole seed, in a plant, by upregulating expression of an certain gene in the plant.
It’s overexpression enhances the grain size both in length and width by ~10%.
It further improves the nutritional value by 10% by increasing the lipid content in rice bran and whole seed.

Potential Product and Services

Provide vectors that enhance grain size and weight, in transgenic plants and plant material
Provide transgenic plant and plant material with enhanced grain size and weight.
Provide methods for screening for genes that enhance grain size and weight, in plants

Development Status and IP Strength

Work with us