We have chosen to scan the rice genome because, as the most important food crop in the world, much of its sequence data is already available.

There are about 600 copies of Osr37/Rire4 in the entire rice genome.

An international consortium led by Japan has been working on the rice genome since 1997 and expects to finish later this year.

The decoding of the rice genome has evoked some of the same bitter politics as were involved in the human genome race.

The rice genome "provides a clear commercial opportunity for the improvement of all cereal crops, which are the foundation of the world's food supply," he said.

Once that the entire rice genome had been sequenced, the effort shifted to identifying genes that are involved in increased yield, disease resistance and nutritional value.

Approximately 450 such proteins have been identified in the arabidopsis genome, and another 477 in the rice genome.

As of 2005, a full sequence of the rice genome has been published.

Identification and characterization of regions of the rice genome associated with broad-spectrum, quantitative disease resistance.

Another public effort is already at work on the rice genome, which has about 430 million base pairs, a relatively small number.