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Rice Genome Mapped

Posted by michael on from the now-you're-cooking dept.

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..."

1 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Re:GNU for Biology? by nomadic · · Score: 5

    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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