Rice Genome Mapped

rampant_gerbil writes: "Apparently a company called Syngenta has sequenced the entire genome of the rice plant. Here is a link to the corporate press release. As the story points out, "Rice is the model for the other grasses, including corn and wheat," so this sounds like quite a milestone. Now if only they would engineer some nacho cheese flavor into those rice cakes..."

Comments

Re:What about the vegies

[jbuhler]

Consider: a lot of the "vegetable" rennet used to make cheese in the USA comes from E. coli bacteria which have been genetically modified to produce rennin, an enzyme that is good at curdling milk proteins. Natural rennin comes from the stomachs of calves, and AFAIK the natural and engineered versions of the enzyme are chemically the same (as opposed to, say, curdling enzymes derived from plants, which must be chemically modified before they can be used to make cheese).

I think microbial rennet is considered vegetarian, despite being an enzyme of animal origin. I know that cheese made with can be labeled kosher.

Re:But... Monsanto gave away the rice genome

[Chris Johnson]

Speaking of which: http://www.abc.net.au/specials/shiva/shiva.htm

Seems this wonderful technology is causing farmers to go bankrupt, commit suicide, sell off their kidneys to survive, not to mention the idea is to make a Wonderful Perfect Monoculture. Can we say 'incredibly, criminally stupid'? I would love to think that people can learn to associate focus-group tested spiffy names like 'golden rice' with the reality that this is a straight-out power grab that will _wreck_ large portions of the world, sabotage their economies and make them slaves to Monsanto, the 'benevolent provider' of the wonderful 'golden rice'. Read the article, "assistance" means video trucks sent into villages to convince farmers to switch over wholesale to the new crop- first one's free kid! and this spells the death of the farmer. Read the article!

I'm sorry, in many ways I think this is more genuinely evil than anything that (for instance) Microsoft has done. MS tries to leech off rich yuppies and control what you think and how you communicate. Monsanto is _killing_ poor farmers by conning and lying to them.

Now moderate me down, because I chose not to 'moderate' my opinion this time and say 'but gee, I'm sure they're all good people'. There's a limit.

Re:They're forgetting something

[Chris Johnson]

Nah- here's how it works. The rice is sold at a loss, like game consoles. Then the company bleeds the farmer dry on fertilizer, pesticides etc. without which the new crop won't grow. The old crop grew fine, just not at USA agribusiness efficiencies, but the new crop needs a USA-type support structure to grow, which is not cheap.

It's hardly hypothetical. Loads of farmers in places like India have gone from being subsistence-level (not 'hungry', just 'poor') to being bankrupt with a pile of fancy seed and unable to make the payments on the infrastructure. At first they tended to commit suicide but apparently selling off kidneys has become a more popular option, at least to start with- death is probably still the end result.

It's not the food, not at all- it's the freaking process! You can't convert subsistence farmers to USA-style agribusiness. They can't afford crop dusters...

grasses eh?

[garcia]

I wonder if the end of "Road Trip" will actually come true when some hardcore science stoners come up w/an altered Marijuana plant that doesn't show up on tests, and becomes incredibly strong...

ahhh, the wonders of modern science ;)

Re:grasses eh?

[AnarchyBurger]

You should try growing some reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), which looks like ordinary grass, but has DMT in it. DMT is a hallucinogen related to magic mushrooms and more distantly to LSD. Read the FAQ at Lyceum.org

Scribes out of work

[froz]

Seems those miniature scribes are out of business. You can now grow entire rice crops with your name printed on each grain.

I'd still be impressed to see someone engrave the entire rice genome onto a single grain of rice. Long-grain will be accepted.

GNU for Biology?

[Cheshire Cat]

Just what the world needs: A company with a patent on the genome of one of, if not *the*, biggest grain food in the world. Want to modify your rice to feed your starving third-world country? Pay us a fee.

I would much rather see something like this placed in the public domain, or better yet until a GNU-type license! Which brings me to the point of this: Is there anything like the GNU license for biological products?

Re:GNU for Biology?

[nomadic]

We shouldn't even need a GNU-type license for this; nobody should be able to patent any form of DNA, or even the methods used to analyze and modify genetic material. This is especially the case involving crops that feed a major percentage of the world's population. Some of the biotech patent issues make software patents look sane by comparison; anyone remember how one Texas-based company patented Basmati rice? Apparently several thousand years of cultivation by Indian farmers didn't constitute prior use; this is being challenged by the Indian government, but that the USPO actually accepted this in the first place is a sign of nearly criminal incompetence.
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Re:GNU for Biology? (counter-example)

[Stephen Samuel]

The fight over genetic ownership has already started. Monsanto "owns" the genetic mods for a version of Canola that is resistant to their "roundup" plant-killer. The seeds of a 'monsanto' crop apparently blew into a farmer's field, and he used them. Now Monsanto is suing him for using seeds that he found on his field.

The apparent purpose of the lawsuit is to create a chilling atmosphere for other people so that they'll be afraid of using a seed if they even think that it could be one they claim ownership of. (up to this point, they've been relying on contracts with farmers that restrict them from using monsanto seeds without paying a fee. Unfortunately seeds don't know anything about contracts (the farmer in this case has not signed any sort of contract with the company.

The extreme case for this sort of lawsuit would be where a company claims 'ownership' of a human genetic mod. Can you imagine the idea of a company claiming royalties for your children?

Honestly, your honor, I did not know that my girlfriend was Monsanto modified. If I had, I would have probably chosen a different partner.

Judge: Ignorance is no defence. O fine you $30,000 and order the child destroyed.

`ø,,ø!

Re:Genetically modified anything is...

[caffeinated_bunsen]

This whole thread is gonna be kinda redundant, but I'll explain this anyway:

> Charging people money for something that could potentially solve a world problem should be criminal.

By that logic, every farmer who has ever sold a bushel of corn or wheat should be in prison.

If you want to go and spend a couple million dollars on gene sequencing equipment, pay a few dozen scientists living wages for a year or two, and not ask for any money in return, go ahead. Really. The world can only benefit from it. Maybe we should start a non-profit organization to promote public domain genetic research. But if you don't have several million dollars to blow, then you're gonna want some return on that investment.

Many recent patents on biotech, genetics, and technology in general are absurd at best. That doesn't mean the whole idea of making a profit from investment and hard work (yes, some of the people involved actually put forth a hell of a lot of effort) is fundamentally evil. Outright exploitation, as we see so often today, is definitely evil.

Our patent system is fucked up in a big way, and some people exploit that to eliminate anything that might keep money away from them. But just because a company tries to make money from doing genetic research doesn't make them evil. Just because a company files a patent doesn't make them evil. Exploiting already impoverished people would make them evil. Restricting scientific research would make them evil. So far, I don't see the company in question doing either one of those. Until they do start exploiting people, or using the patent office to stifle science, or anything else generally shitty, I won't get too angty at them.

ugh

[benshutman]

call me simple.... all these gene work, cloning, genome mapping etc.. all i want to do is be able to go to kinkos and make a damn black and white copy turn out the same as the original. come on people, lets get our priorities straight.


NEWS: cloning, genome, privacy, surveillance, and more!

What about the vegies

[mr_exit]

What i've wanted to know is if you have a plant (say rice) and engineer into it some genes from an animal (say steak or meatballs).... and heres the tricky part......... would it be vegeterian or not??

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Drink Coffee - Do Stupid Things Faster And With More Energy!

Re:They're forgetting something

[MWoody]

I seriously doubt, if a more abundant and hardy breed of rice is created to feed the world's hungry, that many third world inhabitants are going to turn down food on the basis that it's "unnatural".

Of course, feeding the poor offers little financial gain, so they likely won't much care about the wishes of the penniless.
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But... Monsanto gave away the rice genome

[rochlin]

Monsanto, the biggest developer of genetically modified crops in the world, made the rice genome freely available last year. Press Release: href="http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/media/00/00 aug4_goldenrice.html You need to register (on paper!) but the genome itself is available here: http://www.rice-research.org/>Rice Genome site. Much hoopla about this at the time. So what's the deal? (golden rice in the press release refers to rice with extra beta carotene for developing countries. They're offering the regular rice genome plus assistence in developing golden rice crops).