Principal Investigator: Zhao Fangjie

Funding Received: 2.79 million RMB

Sponsored by: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Project Period: January, 2016.01-December, 2020

Brief Introduction to the Project：

  Rapid industrialization in China over the last three decades has resulted in widespread soil contamination with heavy metals or metalloids, especially cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As). Rice grains produced in some areas in Southern China often contain Cd and As that exceed the limits in food, thus posing a significant risk to human health. It is an urgent task to develop mitigation strategies to minimize the transfer of toxic elements to the food chain. Large natural variations in grain Cd and As contents exist among rice germplasms, which can be exploited in breeding of cultivars low in Cd and As accumulation. This project, built on over 10-year collaboration between the applicant and Professor David Salt's group, aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of Cd and As accumulation in rice, to understand the genetic basis underlying the natural variation in Cd and As accumulation and to develop molecular markers for use in molecular breeding of rice cultivars low in Cd and As accumulation. The project will employ the state of the art methodologies in plant ion omics, genomics and functional genomics. Ionomic profiling will be combined with genome-wide association studies as well as map-based and sequencing-based cloning techniques to identify genes controlling Cd and As accumulation in rice grain. Gene functions will be characterized. Allelic variations in relation to Cd or As accumulation will be investigated to enable development of molecular markers for low accumulation of these toxic elements.