Why we want to do that

Lysine is involved in protein synthesis and the β-oxidation of fatty acid. Lysine insufficiency will affect the composition and utilization of amino acids. As rice is the staple food of 3.5 billion people in the world, increasing the protein and lysine content of rice is of great significance to underdeveloped animal-husbandry countries and regions with rice as staple food.
Allergic diseases are the key diseases that need prevention and treatment in the 21st century. Research shows that more than 10% of people in Japan have different degrees of allergic reactions to rice, and the data is up to 30% in Malaysia. Therefore, food allergy is a food safety problem that needs attention for high protein food.

What we have done

We polyploidized diploid rice into tetraploid by colchicine treatment, and used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to site edit the gluten and globulin genes of tetraploid rice, screened and evaluated the quality of mutants. Finally, we selected the digenic mutant of globulin and gluten genes, because it met our expectations of improving the nutritional quality of rice and food safety.

We are going to do

In terms of ihuman practice, we randomly invite rice vendors and consumers do questionnaire and ask to understand the consumer consumption habits and market demand, and through the statistical electric business platform in rice nutrition data found the current Chinese rice widespread low protein content, and Chinese consumers generally do not pay attention to the nutritional value of rice. In the process of perfecting the experiment, we also consulted the nutrition experts. In the summer vacation, we will go to agricultural products and seed companies, Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Grain Bureau, Department of Agriculture and other institutions and units for investigation, and further consult experts and scholars in the rice industry to help us optimize our projects. On the other hand, we had in-depth exchanges with the governor, the mayor, the agricultural enterprises, the policy consultants, the staff of the academy, the consumers and other stakeholders.