India has joined a select group of countries that include China and Japan by coding DNA sequence information for rice genes with special reference to their drought tolerance. Dr Kota Harinarayana, Vice-Chancellor of Central University, on Tuesday released DNA sequence information for 3,100 rice genes identified at the Rice Functional Genomics Project at the university into GenBank for worldwide use.

The university's research group, led by Prof. A R Reddy of the School of Life Sciences, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, USA, had so far contributed sequence information for 6,000 rice genes from a total of 10,000 sequences generated at the university.

Dr Harinarayana said the specific objectives of the project included understanding the genetic basis of drought stress response, molecular marker development, identification of genomic segments associated with drought stress responses, discovery of genes, their expression and regulation and eventually their deployment.

This is the first instance of such a major contribution of rice coding sequence information from India. With this, India joins the select group that includes Japan, China and the International Rice Research Institute in contributing largescale sequence information aimed at understanding the rice functional genome in general and the genes involved in drought tolerance in particular.

Describing the sequencing as a major achievement, Prof A R Reddy told Pharmabiz that it was for the first time that a university research team in the country had made such a contribution possible in biotechnology. The team was working on the project for three years.

The project, he said, was conceived with the larger goal of utilizing the genetic information to improve drought tolerance in rice. One component of the effort was to identify genes that controlled various processes associated with drought tolerance in rice. "We have approached this problem through massive DNA sequencing of coding genes and dissect the structure and function of the genes. It is hoped that the information based on rice will be helpful in analyzing such processes and gene discovery programme of other cereals," Prof. Reddy said.