The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of Nottingham have launched a research partnership to help rice withstand rising temperatures, Global Agriculture reports.

The project, "Temp-Resist Rice: Exploiting Novel Germplasm to Improve Heat Tolerance and Future-Proof Rice Yields", is supported by UK Research and Innovation's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Rice is the main source of calories for more than half the world's people, and alongside drought and flooding, heat is emerging as a major threat to many rice-growing regions.

The greatest risk comes at flowering, said Professor Zoe Wilson of the University of Nottingham: high temperatures can reduce pollen fertility and stop grain from forming, so plants that look healthy all season produce fewer grains at harvest. "We're seeing impacts in fertility, which are particularly impacting pollen viability," she said.

Researchers will study traditional rice varieties and wild relatives for natural heat-tolerance traits. Nottingham's controlled-environment facilities, which simulate tropical temperature, humidity and day length, will be used to test how plants respond to heat, and the most promising material will be evaluated through IRRI's field-testing networks across Asia.

"The insights generated through this research will help us identify traits that can be incorporated into future varieties to maintain productivity under increasingly challenging conditions," said IRRI scientist Dr Suresh Kadaru.

Photo: katorisi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)

Source: Global Agriculture