RICE last week became the first crop plant to have its genome completely
sequenced, an achievement that promises to unlock the genetic secrets of all
major cereal crops. But the companies responsible will not make the sequence
freely available on the Internet or in a scientific journal, a decision that has
caused concern among academics.
“This will rank as one of the great achievements of the genomics era,” says
Peter Meldrum, president of Myriad Genetics, which did the sequencing in Salt
Lake City, Utah. “It’s the first agriculturally important crop to be sequenced,
and it nourishes half the world’s population.”…
