Rice Gene Found to Inhibit Cadmium Uptake

The Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo announced on November 6, 2012, that through a joint study with the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, it identified a rice gene that inhibits cadmium (Cd) uptake and developed a genetic marker that can be used to detect the gene.

A genetic marker is a unique DNA base sequence that can be used to identify a species or certain individuals within a species. The newly identified marker will facilitate the development of a low-Cd rice variety, as it allows variety improvement through ordinary crossbreeding, without genetic engineering.

The new technology eliminates the need to transport soil to replace soil contaminated by cadmium, as well as the need to flood rice paddy fields, a practice that reduces arsenic concentrations in rice and the emission of methane from rice fields when draining the irrigation water. In addition, a significant reduction in Cd-concentrations in rice will contribute to better health for those who live on rice.

The study method can also be applied to radioactive cesium, which has great implications for solving soil and food contamination caused by radioactive fallout from TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident following the Japan earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.