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n a tiny greenhouse on top of the Sixth
Street garage, just west of the football
stadium, dozens of green rice shoots glis-

ten in the sun, awaiting their roles in the
battle against world hunger.
One day, these 210 shoots will pass along to their

offspring ancient genes associated with traits that
result in higher yields, pest resistance and drought
tolerance. Those genes — and traits — will then
be bred into popular cultivars using conventional
breeding practices.

The project is the latest for Rod Wing, an expert
in comparative and evolutionary genomics for crops
like rice and corn, the founding director of the Ari-

zona Genomics Institute, and the UA’s Bud Antle
Unlike the private Endowed Chair for Excellence in Agriculture and Life

companies studying Sciences. In 2005, Wing, his UA team at the inter-
disciplinary BIO5 Institute and a consortium called
rice genomes, the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project

the IRGSP team completed the sequencing of the rice genome — the

immediately first complete sequencing of a major crop plant.
The IRGSP brings together academics, officials
published its and industry experts from nations including Japan,

findings in open China, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Thailand, France,

databases so labs Brazil and the United Kingdom. As the world’s
population soars, its work is ever more crucial; rice,
worldwide could according to Wing, is the most important food crop

experiment with it. in the world.

24 ARIZONA ALUMNI MAGAZINE