WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE VOL.436 NO.7052 DATED 11 AUGUST 2005
* Genomics: International consortium reports complete rice genome
* A rose by any other colour
[1] Genomics: International consortium reports complete rice genome (pp
793-800)
The most complete genetic sequence of rice to date is presented in this
week's Nature. Previous papers have reported a draft sequence, but an
international consortium has now taken the sequence to finished-quality,
which will make it more useful to scientists and plant breeders looking to
improve rice cultivation.
Arguably the world's most important cereal grain, rice (Oryza sativa) has
been central to human nutrition and culture for the past 10,000 years. This
paper provides a blueprint for all of the rice chromosomes, and the
information can hopefully be harnessed to help feed a rapidly increasing
population under conditions of limited agricultural resources, say the
members of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project.
Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population - with
three billion people dependent on it worldwide, it is important for
scientists to understand rice genetics. According to the United Nations,
rice currently provides 20% of the world's dietary energy supply, with wheat
supplying 19% and maize 5%. In Asia alone, more than two billion people
obtain 60-70% of their calories from rice and rice-derived products.
Representing 30% of global cereal production today, rice production levels
have doubled over the past 30 years. However, current consumption trends
suggest that approximately 4.6 billion people will be reliant on rice crops
by the year 2025, necessitating a further 30% increase in world rice
production to meet projected demands. The completed rice genome sequence and
the gene characteristics now identified will hopefully lead to improvements
in rice production, and will allow for easier study of related cereal
grasses such as maize and sorghum, say the group.
CONTACT
Takuji Sasaki (Institute of the Society for Techno-innovation of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tsukuba, Japan)
Tel: +81 29 838 7406; E-mail: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[2] A rose by any other colour (p 791)
The red pigment in roses also makes cornflowers blue. This has puzzled
scientists since its discovery 90 years ago, and has not been fully
explained until now. The secret behind the cornflower's colour, according to
a Brief Communication in this week's Nature, is the arrangement of four
metal ions that are bound to a complex of six molecules each of two
different pigments, which together combine to create a new type of
'supramolecular' pigment that is bright blue.
The colour of red and blue flowers depends on a group of pigments known as
anthocyanins. Blue flowers are usually coloured by delphinidin-type
anthocyanins, but cornflowers contain the rose anthocyanin and another type
of pigment known as a flavone - together called protocyanin. Kosaku Takeda
and colleagues have solved the protocyanin's crystal structure using X-ray
diffraction, enabling them to reconstruct the three-dimensional arrangement
of the complex. They found that it contains an iron and a magnesium ion
strategically placed to give the blue coloration, and two calcium ions to
give it stability.
CONTACT
Kosaku Takeda (Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan)
Tel: +81 42 544 6739; E-mail: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
PRESS CONTACTS...
For North America and Canada
Katie McGoldrick, Nature Washington
Tel: +1 202 737 2355; E-mail: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
For Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Rinoko Asami, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
For the UK/Europe/other countries not listed above
Ruth Francis, Nature London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Katharine Mansell, Nature London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd,
dedicated to serving the academic and professional scientific community.
NPG's flagship title, Nature, is the world's most highly-cited weekly
multidisciplinary journal and was first published in 1869. Other
publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature
Clinical Practice, and a range of prestigious academic journals, including
society-owned publications.
NPG is a global company, with headquarters in London and offices in New
York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Munich and
Basingstoke. For more information, please go to www.nature.com
Editorial contacts: While the best contacts for stories will always be the
authors themselves, in some cases the Nature editor who handled the paper
will be available for comment if an author is unobtainable. Editors are
contactable via Ruth Francis on +44 20 7843 4562. Feel free to get in touch
with Nature's press contacts in London, Washington and Tokyo (as listed at
the end of this release) with any general editorial inquiry.
Warning: This document, and the Nature papers to which it refers, may
contain information that is price sensitive (as legally defined, for
example, in the UK Criminal Justice Act 1993 Part V) with respect to
publicly quoted companies. Anyone dealing in securities using information
contained in this document or in advanced copies of Nature's content may be
guilty of insider trading under the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The Nature journals press site is at <http://press.nature.com>
* PDFs for the Articles, Letters, Progress articles, Review articles,
Insights and Brief Communications in this issue will be available on the
Nature journals press site from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern time on
the Friday before publication.
* PDFs of News & Views, News Features, Correspondence and Commentaries
will be available from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern time on the Monday
before publication
PICTURES: While we are happy for images from Nature to be reproduced for the
purposes of contemporaneous news reporting, you must also seek permission
from the copyright holder (if named) or author of the research paper in
question (if not).
HYPE: We take great care not to hype the papers mentioned on our press
releases, but are sometimes accused of doing so. If you ever consider that a
story has been hyped, please do not hesitate to contact us at
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>, citing the specific example.
PLEASE CITE NATURE AND OUR WEBSITE www.nature.com/nature AS THE SOURCE OF
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO
http://www.nature.com/nature