Why Does the Rice Plant Need 50 Thousand Genes?
The rice research reveals that the plant may be more complex than scientists first thought. It’s been found that rice is densely populated with many small genes and that the rice plant has about 50,000 genes. {By contrast, it’s believed that the human genome has between [35,000 – 40,000] genes.} “Plants do photosynthesis, an extremely complicated process, and without plants, we’d all be dead,” Ronald said. [ Editor’s Note: I do not believe that the presence of chloroplasts in the leaves of green plants can explain a requirement for so many genes in plants but are not found in animals. We have a little more work to do to find the answer, and we simply don’t know yet. We do know that all grain plants, including corn and wheat, have many of the same genes as rice.] In recent years, scientists have learned that unlocking the genetic code of one organism can quickly lead to a better understanding of other living things. For example, the sequencing of the genes of the fruit fly just two year
