title: Rice Improvement Through Genome-Based Functional Analysis and Molecular Breeding in India.
abstract: Rice is one of the main pillars of food security in India. Its improvement for higher yield in sustainable agriculture system is also vital to provide energy and nutritional needs of growing world population, expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. The high quality genome sequence of rice has provided a rich resource to mine information about diversity of genes and alleles which can contribute to improvement of useful agronomic traits. Defining the function of each gene and regulatory element of rice remains a challenge for the rice community in the coming years. Subsequent to participation in IRGSP, India has continued to contribute in the areas of diversity analysis, transcriptomics, functional genomics, marker development, QTL mapping and molecular breeding, through national and multi-national research programs. These efforts have helped generate resources for rice improvement, some of which have already been deployed to mitigate loss due to environmental stress and pathogens. With renewed efforts, Indian researchers are making new strides, along with the international scientific community, in both basic research and realization of its translational impact.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110067, India.
authors.forename: Pinky
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110067, India.
authors.forename: Swarup K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Parida
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi, 110021, India.
authors.forename: Saurabh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raghuvanshi
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi, 110021, India.
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi, 110021, India.
authors.forename: Paramjit
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khurana
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi, 110021, India.
authors.forename: Jitendra P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Khurana
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110067, India. akhilesh@genomeindia.org.|Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi, 110021, India. akhilesh@genomeindia.org.
authors.forename: Akhilesh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Tyagi
keywords: Gene function; Genome; India; Marker-assisted selection; Oryza sativa; Rice; Transcriptomics