Rice Omics and biotechnology in China

Rice is the major source of food for over half of the world’s population. As a model cereal crop, the complete genome sequence of rice has become fundamental for analyzing gene functions and relating them to practical applications in plants. At present, rice researchers devote much effort to generating mutants and tagged lines, or utilizing elite germplasms to clone important genes and identify their functions. Such processes combine different -omic technologies including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. In the past decade, Chinese scientists have made great contributions toward integrated analyses of rice omics and biotechnological applications, particularly whole genome shotgun sequencing of Indica rice 9311, and sequencing of chromosome 4 of japonica rice Nipponbare, cloning and identifying 220 functional genes, and using certain identified genes to improve rice agronomic traits through molecular breeding approaches. This review presents a summary of the advances made in rice omics and biotechnology in China, as well as future prospects.