Pressrelease - International Rice Sequencing Group (IRGSP) to Complete High Quality Draft of the Rice Genome by December 2002 -

Press Release

21, Dec., 2001
National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)

International Rice Sequencing Group (IRGSP) to Complete High Quality Draft of the Rice Genome by December 2002

The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) is a worldwide consortium of scientists whose goal is to obtain the complete sequence of the rice genome. The group is sequencing the same strain of rice, shares materials, and releases sequence to public databases as soon as it is obtained. Currently, the IRGSP has published nearly half of the genome sequence in either phase 2 or finished quality.

At its most recent meeting at the Institute for Genome Research (TIGR), Rockville, Maryland, USA, the IRGSP declared a goal of completing the phase 2 sequence for the entire genome by the end of 2002. In assessing recent progress and available capacity and funding, the group agreed that this is a reasonably obtainable goal. The ultimate goal is to obtain finished sequence for the complete genome.

DNA of all organisms is a double-stranded polymer of paired nucleotides (base pairs). "Finished" sequence means that every base pair has been determined with an accuracy of 99.99 percent. "Phase 2" sequence means that the orientation and order of all of the pieces are known. In practice, every nucleotide pair has been read on the average 10 times. Most importantly, the location of each segment is known with respect to the genetic map of rice.

Finished and phase 2 quality sequence contrast with whole genome shotgun sequence assemblies, which can be obtained more rapidly, but have lower sequence quality, many gaps, and a high percentage of pieces not tied to the genetic map.

There are two primary uses of the rice genome sequence:

Rice is a model organism for all the cereal grasses. All cereals share extensive similarity in their genetic maps. While there are local species-specific variations in these maps, in-depth knowledge of one map gives insights into the location of genes in other species. Complete sequence of individual genes from rice provides information about homologous genes and their control regions in other cereal crops.

Increasingly, rice improvement relies on genomic technology. With the knowledge of the location and sequence of a gene that controls an agronomic trait, the plant breeder can track and select the gene during hybridization and self-pollination. This makes plant breeding more efficient and productive. Furthermore, knowing the sequence and location of the gene allows breeders to look for more useful variants of a gene in other rice strains or in distant relatives. Genomic technology cannot be used without publicly available, high- quality, map-based sequence.

By IRGSP, 20/12/2001

*Takuji Sasaki (RGP, Japan)
( *:contact person: tsasaki@nias.affrc.go.jp, phone:+81-298-38-2199 or 7066, fax:+81-298-38-2302 or 7066)
Robin Buell (TIGR, USA)
Rod Wing (CUGI, USA)
Dick McCombie (CSHL, USA)
Jo Messing (Rutgers University, USA)
Bin Han (NCGR, China)
Yue-ie Hsing (ASPGC, Taiwan)
Akhilesh Tyagi (IIRGS, India)
Ho Il Kim (KRGRP, Korea)
Francis Quetier (Genoscope, France)