High starch content and low methane emission rice

After carbon dioxide methane is the second important greenhouse gas. Paddies contribute up to 17% of the global methane emission. Warm waterlogged soil and exuded nutrients from roots provide ideal condition for methanogenesis in paddies. Here, the addition of a single transcription factor gene, barley SUSIBA2 conferred a shift of carbon flux t0 SUSIBA2 rice. The altered allocation resulted in an increased biomass and starch content in the seeds and stems, and suppressed methanogenesis, possibly through the reduction in root exudates.

Ref: Su et al., 2015, Nature