This chapter deals with the biology of rice (Oryza sativa), a revision original 1999 publication. It contains information for use during risk/safety regulatory assessment genetically engineered varieties intended to be grown in environment (biosafety). includes elements taxonomy, centres origin, cultivation, reproductive biology, genetics, hybridisation and introgression, as well ecology. Annex...

Whole genome duplication (WGD) and subsequent evolution of gene pairs have been shown to have shaped the present day genomes of most, if not all, plants and to have played an essential role in the evolution of many eukaryotic genomes. Analysis of the rice (Oryza sativa ssp. japonica) genome sequence suggested an ancestral WGD ∼50-70 Ma common to all cereals and a segmental duplication between c...

BACKGROUND Rice, Oryza sativa L., is the staple food for half the world's population. By 2030, the production of rice must increase by at least 25% in order to keep up with global population growth and demand. Accelerated genetic gains in rice improvement are needed to mitigate the effects of climate change and loss of arable land, as well as to ensure a stable global food supply. FINDINGS We...

Differences in expression levels are an important source of phenotypic variation within and between populations. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key players in post-transcriptional gene regulation that are important for plant development and stress responses. We surveyed expression variation of miRNAs and mRNAs of six accessions from two rice subspecies Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica and Oryza sativa L. ss...

Microplot experiments on flooded soil infested with Hirschmanniella oryzae were conducted to investigate the influence of the legum Sesbania rostrata as a rotation crop with rice, Oryza sativa L. cv. Moroberekan. To avoid a green manure effect from S. rostrata, all aerial parts were removed at harvest. The dry weight of paddy, culms and leaves, and number of culms of rice following Sesbania wer...

Red rice is an interfertile, weedy form of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) that competes aggressively with the crop in the southern US, reducing yields and contaminating harvests. No wild Oryza species occur in North America and the weed has been proposed to have evolved through multiple mechanisms, including “de-domestication” of US crop cultivars, accidental introduction of Asian weeds, and...

MicroRNA528 (miR528) is a conserved monocot-specific small RNA that has the potential of mediating multiple stress responses. So far, however, experimental functional studies of miR528 are lacking. Here, we report that overexpression of the rice (Oryza sativa) miR528 (Osa-miR528) in transgenic creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.)

Complete submergence of plants prevents direct O(2) and CO(2) exchange with air. Underwater photosynthesis can result in marked diurnal changes in O(2) supply to submerged plants. Dynamics in pO(2) had not been measured directly for submerged rice (Oryza sativa), but in an earlier study, radial O(2) loss from roots showed an initial peak following shoot illumination. O(2) dynamics in shoots and...

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important crops in the world (Elert, 2014). However, rice grain production can be affected by nutritional status, depending on the cultivationmethod and soil type: high levels of metals such as aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) decrease plant growth and yield, especially in acidic soils (Ricachenevsky et al., 2010; Kochian et al., 2015), while low nutrient us...

The family of plant membrane transporters named HKT (for High-affinity K + Transporters) can be subdivided into sub-families 1 and 2, which respectively comprise Na +-selective transporters and transporters able to function as Na +-K + symporters, at least when expressed in yeast or Xenopus oocytes. Surprisingly, a subfamily 2 member from rice (Oryza sativa),