Syngenta Sequences the Genome of Rice, But Access to the Data Will Be Restricted

Antonio Regaldo / Wall Street Journal 26jan01

Syngenta AG, an agrichemicals company in Basel, Switzerland, said it has completed sequencing the DNA of rice, making it the first commercially important food crop to have its genetic material laid bare.

Rice is the second-largest genome sequenced so far, after the human genome. A genome represents an organism's full genetic makeup.

Syngenta, which began its project in September 1999, quickly raced ahead of the public-sector International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, which is coordinated by the government of Japan but isn't scheduled to complete its work until late 2004. U.S. researchers involved in that project said they hoped Syngenta would make its data freely available, but the company indicated it would restrict access for the time being.

Rice, an aquatic grass, is the world's largest source of food, and it is particularly important in Asia. In such countries as Bangladesh and Vietnam, rice accounts for more than 60% of calories consumed each year. Scientists said the sequence data should prove helpful in increasing production to meet growing population pressures. For instance, one goal would be to produce a variant that can grow in dry regions. Though rice has modest commercial significance in the U.S. and Europe, the gene information is expected to speed research on other grass species such as corn, wheat and barley.

'Understanding Rice'

"By understanding rice, we have a virtual genome map for all the others," said Steven Briggs, Syngenta's head of genomics research.

The majority of the rice sequencing work was carried out by Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, under contract to Syngenta, with contributions from Clemson University, in Clemson, S.C. The completion of the project is to be announced Saturday at a Keystone Symposium on plant biology in Big Sky, Mont.

Syngenta was formed in November when Norvartis AG, also of Basel, and AstraZeneca PLC, of Wilmington, Del., merged their pesticide and seed businesses and then spun off the combined operations. It is the world's largest agrichemicals business, with pro-forma sales of $7 billion in 1999. At 4 p.m. Thursday in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading, Syngenta's American depositary shares were up 38 cents at a 52-week high of $12.13.

Rice isn't the first plant whose genome has been sequenced. The first, a weed called Arabidopsis thaliana, was completed in December by an international consortium of academic scientists.

Nor is Syngenta the first company to take on the rice genome. Previously, the Pharmacia unit of Monsanto Co., of St. Louis, paid the University of Washington, in Seattle, to produce a rough draft of the rice DNA code, but that project was only about 70% to 80% complete.

In August, Monsanto turned that data over to the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, and U.S. rice researchers said they hope Syngenta will do the same. Syngenta executives indicated they were likely to share the data, but didn't specify what the extent or terms of access might be.

Economic, Symbolic Importance

As with the race to complete the human genome, public-private competition has proved to be a flash point for the rice-sequencing effort, particularly in Japan, where the grain has vast economic, social and symbolic significance. Takuji Sasaki, the Japanese scientist who directs the public-sector effort, said the DNA of rice has as much potential "for politics" as for science. According to Dr. Sasaki, the Japanese government is spending $18 million a year on its rice genome effort.

U.S. researchers said access to the Syngenta data probably would be a great help to their efforts. "We would really like not to duplicate efforts," said Machi Dilworth, a project director at the National Science Foundation, in Arlington, Va., who oversees the U.S. government's $4 million a year contribution to the international rice project. "But unless the data are shared, it's as if it were not there as far as the research community is concerned."

For a variety of reasons, industry is unlikely to pursue many genetic modifications in rice. Instead, scientists said the genome data would have more immediate use in speeding up traditional plant breeding, which is used to create more productive varieties of rice. "Breeding used to be hit and miss, but now we can create a genetic marker for the trait we want, and follow it through the breeding process," said David Evans, Syngenta's head of research and development.

The growing knowledge of plant biology also is expected to usher in a new generation of more potent and effective weed and pest-killing chemicals.