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SCIENCE:
RICE GENOME PROJECT
Staple
Strains
Rice
resistant to pests and adverse climatic conditions could be the panacea
for food shortage. But is it entirely risk-free?
By Supriya
Bezbaruah
The
compelling need to satiate hunger has long been the driving force behind
human development. Rice, the grain that has nourished India since the
Vedic ages, is now at the centre of the country's rush towards cutting-edge
biotechnology being harnessed to fulfil this fundamental need. Indian
scientists, partners to the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project,
have started work to unravel rice genes-something which can eventually
be manipulated to change the agricultural map of India. In doing so, they
have pushed the country's most popular staple to the forefront of an increasingly
important and heated debate on the safety of genetically engineered food.
The idea
of the project is to meet Malthus head on. Basmati or parmal, boiled or
fried, idli or dosa, most Indians depend on rice-it is easy to cook and
grow and nutritionally adequate in itself. But rice production is no longer
keeping pace with population growth. Although high-yielding varieties
of rice and wheat from the Green Revolution have made the country self-sufficient
in food, yield has decreased in recent years while the demand for rice
has rocketed. Also, the increased use of fertilisers and pesticides is
making the crop more expensive for farmers. The output in 1999-2000 is
estimated to be 202 million tonnes. By 2011-12, rice consumption is expected
to increase to an estimated 337 million tonnes. "Our output has to
grow," says Agricultural Secretary Bhaskar Barua.
If only
rice would flourish in dry barren soil, mature several times a year and
counter threats from diseases and pests without losing its intrinsic flavour
or fragrance, there wouldn't be reason for anxiety. Genomics is portrayed
as the modern genie that can make such wishes come true. India is concentrating
work on chromosome 11, the portion of the rice genetic material (genome)
that contains genes controlling the grain's responses to drought, salinity,
acidity and tolerance to floods. Detailed studies would make it possible
to manipulate and "design" rice varieties for most Indian conditions.
This could mean that in 15 or so years, the annual floods in West Bengal,
the largest rice producer, may no longer be agricultural disasters, thanks
to flood-resistant rice varieties.
What are
genes and genomes? Here's what it is all about. Every living creature
has a genome, a biochemical book of instructions for life, written in
the alphabet of DNA, which consists of four "letters" called
bases. Genes are the "words" formed by the particular arrangement
of bases. The rice genome has some 40,000 genes compacted into 12 dense
structures called chromosomes. "Sequencing" the genome, simply
put, means decoding the instructions. In India, work on the Japanese-led
project started three months ago at two centres: Delhi University (DU)
and the Delhi-based National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology It
is coordinated by A. Tyagi of DU's Molecular Plant Biology Department.
Initially, India aims to sequence at least minimum 10 megabases of chromosome
11. According to Manju Sharma, secretary, Department of Biotechnology,
which has doled out a grant of Rs 48 crore, one megabase of sequence is
expected to be completed by June 2001.
The Work
is Painstaking: Rice DNA unravelled to its full length could run into
several metres. The entire length has to be broken down into innumerable
randomly sheared fragments. Sophisticated supercomputers read the sequence
of the "bases" in each fragment, and then, like a jigsaw puzzle,
realign all the fragments in the original order. Scientists now have the
uphill task of scrutinising the genes and understanding their functions.
It was not
merely economics that attracted scientists to this project. Rice serves
as a model for other cereal "grasses" such as wheat, rye, barley,
maize, sorghum and millet. Any useful gene in rice, therefore, would allow
scientists to immediately swoop down on a similar gene in wheat or maize,
saving years of sifting through endless data.
But all
this gene flipping is making green activists see red. Vandana Shiva, director,
Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), says
such experiments are akin to "genetic pollution". Unlike other
technologies, tinkering with the essence of life is like playing God-the
reason why biotechnology is so promising and yet potentially dangerous.
Dangerous?
Possibly. Recently in Delhi, Scotland-based scientist Arpad Pusztai disclosed
that potatoes genetically modified for pest-resistance retarded the development
of rats, playing havoc with their immune systems. Not long ago, US foods
giant Kraft recalled some food made from potentially allergic modified
corn. The danger with genetic engineering is that such life forms which
may grow anywhere and cross-pollinate cannot be "recalled" easily,
unlike chemical products.
The term
"genetic engineering" is a very broad one, as Tyagi points out.
At its simplest, it means changes in the genes of the strain itself or
between close relatives to make conventional breeding quicker and more
precise. But the term could mean transfer of useful genes from one completely
different species to another, like genes transferred from bacteria to
cotton or maize. The dangers here are unknown because transfer technology
is not very precise. Genes for nutrition enhancement-such as in the vitamin
A-enhanced "golden rice" developed by Monsanto and others-may
be less harmful than a gene for an insecticide, which, like pesticides,
may effect other animals too. Scientists stress that each case has to
be judged on its own merits.
Modified
crops are the future, feels T.M. Manjunath, director of the agro-chemical
giant Monsanto's research centre. Transgenic crops are already being grown
on about 40 million hectares in 12 countries. "Modified crops have
resulted in reduced application of chemicals," he says.
The RFSTE,
however, has called for a 10-year freeze in the commercialisation of modified
crops so that independent safety assessments can be conducted "without
corporate sponsorship and control". R. Paroda, director-general of
the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, insists these tests are
in place. "Even to release conventional varieties of rice, it takes
breeders five to seven years," he says.
Currently,
two safety committees in India are responsible for regulating and assessing
the risks of genetically modified crops. But are these measures sufficient?
Says Paroda: "Ours is the best testing system in any developing country.
Risks are rigorously assessed." But R.K. Pachauri of Tata Energy
Research Institute-where research on nutrition-enhancing genes in rice
is going on-is less confident. "Safety assessment provisions are
probably not adequate. This requires far more intellectual effort, probably
more than the research itself," he says.
Supporters
of biotechnology say every benefit has a risk and in the case of genetic
engineering the risk is being stringently assessed. The ultimate judgement
lies with the consumers-the farmers and the average Indian who gets food
on his platter every day. Paroda supports the labelling of genetically
modified food. "Let the consumer decide," he declares.
The next
few years in India are ripe with promise. In a country with a malnourished
majority, the essence of the Rice Genome Project is that it uses the most
modern tools to fulfil an ancient hope-a land without hunger. If only
we could be absolutely sure that the genes won't strike back.
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