“We really are at the dawn of an exciting new era in rice research,” the chairman of the RG5 organizing committee, Dr. David Mackill, said. “The unprecedented levels of global interest in the conference are clear evidence of this.”

Some of the most exciting new research to be presented at the symposium will include:

• The latest on new, more nutritious varieties of rice that are set to have a major impact on the health and well-being of Asian and Filipino rice consumers. 
• The development of new rice varieties that will allow Filipino rice farmers to grow rice in more difficult conditions such as drought or poor soil. 
• A better understanding of how the rice plant works, especially why it tastes, smells and yields the way it does, via the new science of functional genomics. 
• The latest on new technologies such as hybrid rice.

Dr. Mackill said the conference would also be an unprecedented opportunity for Filipino researchers and scientists to learn and study first hand the very latest in rice research. “The conference has attracted many world-class scientists who are recognized leaders in their respective fields, so it’s a great opportunity for local scientists to get access to new knowledge and information that otherwise may have been more remote or even inaccessible.

“We are very hopeful that this event will give an important boost to the local rice industry and research community, Dr. Mackill added. “And, we’re especially pleased that we were able to organize such a major international conference in support of National Rice Awareness Month as November was declared last year by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo under Presidential Proclamation 524.”

This is the fifth International Rice Genetics Symposium in a series of symposia held by IRRI every five years. The first international symposium held in 1985 led to the birth of the Rice Genetics Cooperative (RGC) for promoting international collaboration. The same year, the Rockefeller Foundation established the International Program on Rice Biotechnology, which has played a major role in advancing the frontiers of knowledge on cellular and molecular genetics of rice, international collaboration and human resource development.

In the second symposium, a unified system of numbering rice chromosomes and linkage groups was adopted. The orientation of classical and molecular maps was one of the many highlights of the third symposium. The fourth symposium brought together 520 rice scientists from 32 countries and provided an excellent forum for scientists from developed and developing countries to share information on the latest advances in rice science and to develop collaborative research projects.

From being a poor cousin to maize, wheat and tomato for genetic knowledge, as recently as the 1980s, rice has become a model plant for molecular genetic research. Numerous scientists in laboratories worldwide have helped make rice a favored higher plant for molecular and cellular genetic studies. Notable examples include genome sequencing of both indica and japonica rice and isolation and characterization of genes governing various agronomic traits.

These advances have opened new avenues for gene discovery and for applying new tools of genomics to understand the function of rice genes. The manipulation of such genes would be another breakthrough in rice genetics and breeding and to develop nutritional rice varieties with higher yield potential, possessing durable resistance to pests and increased tolerance to difficult growing conditions.

The Fifth International Rice Genetics Symposium will feature plenary lectures, oral and poster presentations, and workshops. It will be held jointly with the Third International Rice Functional Genomics Symposium, an annual event. World-famous geneticists at RG5 will deliver plenary lectures covering a wide range of topics from classical genetics to the most advanced research on gene isolation and functional genomics.

The symposium will also provide an important forum for reviewing the latest advances in rice research and for in-depth discussion and exchange of information on classical genetics and genomics. It is been generously supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

For more information, please visit: http://www.irri.org/rg5/