Feb. 8, 2012 A large-scale study analyzing metabolic compounds
in rice grains conducted by researchers at the RIKEN Plant
Science Center (PSC) and their collaborators has identified 131
rice metabolites and clarified the genetic and environmental
factors that influence their production. As one of the most
important staple crops, rice plays a central role in supplying
the nutrients needed to keep the world population healthy. The
nutritional value of rice crops is determined by the types and
quantities of metabolites they contain, which are strongly
affected by environmental and genetic factors. Understanding
these factors is crucial to increasing nutritional value, but
the complex relationship between genes and plant metabolism
makes this a formidable challenge. At the heart of this
challenge are so-called quantitative train loci (QTL), stretches
of DNA which contain or link to the genes for a phenotypic
trait, in this case metabolite levels. To breed lines of rice
which produce more of a specific metabolite