The successful sequencing of about 40,000 possible coding genes for rice is seen to accelerate the means for raising yield of rice and also other crops of the grass family including wheat, maize, barley, and oats.

"If we find that favorable sequence in rice, we can use that information to accelerate the job. (We will know) which variety gives us a higher yield, which varieties grows in favorable condition. That sequence in rice will be similar in wheat, in maize," Takuji Sasaki, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) vice president, told reporters during the International Rice Genetics Symposium at the Edsa Shangri la Hotel.

The Philippine government through the Philippine Rice Research (PRRI) has been part of an effort to determine genetic information in rice in order to identify which rice variety has the characteristics desired in a specific rice growing region in the country.

Good characteristics may be tolerance to drought, tolerance to salinity, disease resistance, pest resistance, high yield, and vitamin and mineral content.

"To make a DNA (trait-carrying genes) of a rice plant, to make a clone (of a variety that has a good trait) is very easy. But we need a sequence of the DNA which will accelerate studies on rice varieties,"said Sasaki.

PRRI Director Leocadio S. Sebastian said researchers have identified the function of some 2,000 rice coding genes out of some 40,000 coding genes.

"The good thing about this is if you know what gene has your desired trait, you can isolate it, clone it, and transfer that variety to one that doesn't have that trait. We will use it to improve the variety released to farmers," he said.

Ronald L. Phillips, Center for Microbial and Plant Genomics at the University of Minnesotta's Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, said the future of the improvement of rice variety will be as simple as "switching on and off" a gene.

Since rice varieties continue to change as time goes by, it is important for researchers to keep all the information about rice genes so that this may be accessed in the future as the need arises.

"Resistance to insect or disease does not last that long because a disease may be caused by a virus, and you will find that there's a new strain of that disease. It happens all the time," Phillips said.

The Philippines is presently engaged in trying to raise rice yield by developing those varieties that are resistant to the disease tungro or to bacterial blight.

PRRI, the International Rice Research Institute and other rice research groups are sharing genetic information on rice with the Mexico-based International Center for Wheat and Maize and other institutions engaged in developing high yielding varieties for other crops.