New gene database established to promote rice breeding

BEIJING - Chinese researchers have developed a database on rice epigenomic information to facilitate rice breeding, according to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).

With the development of genome sequencing technology, a large amount of rice epigenomic information has been gathered. It is necessary to integrate multiple epigenomic data of rice and construct a data platform.

Researchers from the Biotechnology Research Institute of the CAAS created a database named eRice, to integrate epigenomic annotations for both japonica and indica rice, two main cultivars in Asia.

The database combines artificial intelligence technology to conduct deep mining of the data. It will be updated to provide a broader understanding of the epigenetic regulation of complex biological processes in rice as well as a guide for future molecular design efforts.

The research was published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.