Transgenic Rice Plants Overexpressing Certain Proteins Show Enhanced Grain Size
- Field
- Transgenic Plants
- Patent
- IP00732
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
- PCT application no PCT/CN2017/113489