The Rice genome (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare) has been sequenced by the IRGSP (International Rice Genome Sequencing Project), in December 2004, and Japan has been taking a leading role of this project.
Recently, a detailed analysis of the high-quality sequence of the rice genome was featured in Nature 2005 Aug 11;436(7052):793-800.
According to National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) and the Institute of the Society for Techno-innovation of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (STAFF), a total of 37,544 genes were identified. About 71% of these genes are similar to genes found in Arabidopsis, a model experimental dicotyledonous plant, which has been completely sequenced in the year 2000. A total of 2,859 genes (c.a. 8%) did not have homologies with those of Arabidopsis. These genes may be rice-specific or monocot-specific.
The data was submitted to DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank International Nucleotide Sequence Databases and was released under the Accession numbers AP008207 - AP008218. The sequence information is available via DDBJ getentry system.Drs. Takashi Gojobori (Director of CIB-DDBJ) and Hisakazu Iwama (formerly belonged to DDBJ until 2004.10, current affiliation is Associate Professor of Kagawa University) participated in International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, in charge of Annotation and Analysis.
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