November 11, 2005

Completion of Rice Genome Map

Researchers from the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) completed a sequence of the rice genome that will help become a key resource to improve the nutritional quality and productivity of rice. Rice is the first crop plant to be sequenced and is significant because it shares common sets of genes with most of the world’s major food and feed crops, such as corn, wheat, rye and barley. 

The project analysis, published in the August 2005 issue of Nature, represents a highly accurate blueprint for all the rice chromosomes, which will impact the most important food source for half the world’s population.  The entire genetic sequence is available for public access in GenBank at the National Institute of Health, enabling the advancement of cereal crop improvement and basic plant research worldwide. 

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Animal Foods To Improve Quality of Under-Nourished Children’s Diet

At the 2005 American Association of Science annual meeting, the role of meat and milk in supplementing the diet of under-nourished young children was highlighted. The director of the US Agricultural Research Service described a two-year study in rural Kenya, completed in which several hundred school children received meat, milk or an equivalent amount of energy from vegetable oils.

Children in all three groups, whether they received meat, milk or oil, gained about 400 grams more weight and increased their upper-arm muscle mass compared to classmates who received no supplements, but the children who received the meat supplement also performed significantly better than all the groups on a test of problem-solving ability and fluid intelligence, and those children who received either meat or milk supplements were also found to have better micronutrient status after intervention. These results were consistent with other studies in Kenya, Egypt and Mexico, and may be highly relevant to the significant numbers of children in Asia whose diet may be adequate in energy but low in micronutrient content.