In an effort to create more productive and disease-resistant strains of rice, Chinese researchers have created a gene 'map' that will eventually allow not only comparisons between different strains of rice but between other major grains as well. Scientists at Shanghai's Genetic Research Center have isolated and catalogued the individual genes that determine how a rice plant behaves. Scientists believe that they can isolate the genes in rice and other grains that direct such things as yield, need for moisture, behaviour in different soils and resistance to disease (Asiaweek, Vol 23, No 17).
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