Scientists sequence the genome of basmati rice

Using an innovative genome sequencing technology, researchers assembled the complete genetic blueprint of two basmati rice varieties, including one that is drought-tolerant and resistant to bacterial disease. The findings, published in Genome Biology, also show that basmati rice is a hybrid of two other rice groups.

Basmati – derived from the Hindi word for "fragrant" – is a type of aromatic long-grain rice grown in southern Asia. Despite the economic and cultural importance of basmati and related aromatic rice varieties, their evolutionary history is not fully understood.

Whole-genome sequencing – which determines an organism's complete DNA sequence – is an important tool for studying plants and improving crop varieties. Prior research assembled the genome for basmati rice using short-read sequencing – in which DNA is broken into tiny fragments and then reassembled – but there were missing sequences and gaps in the data.

The researchers in NYU's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology sequenced the genome of two members of the basmati rice group using nanopore sequencing technology. Developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a collaborator on this project, nanopore sequencing is a third-generation sequencing technology that allows long single molecules of DNA to be sequenced quickly, improving on the completeness and efficiency of earlier genome sequencing.