A gene that enables rice to survive complete submergence has been identified by a team of researchers at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and at UC Davis and UC Riverside.

The discovery allows for development of a new rice varieties that can withstand flooding, thus overcoming one of agriculture's oldest challenges and offering relief to millions of poor rice farmers around the world. While rice thrives in standing water, like all crops it will die if completely submerged for more than a few days.

The development and cultivation of the new varieties is expected to increase food security for 70 million of the world's poorest people, and may reduce yield crop losses from weeds in places like the United States where rice is seeded in flooded fields. Results of the study were due to appear in the Aug. 10 issue of the journal Nature.

UC Davis researchers on the team were Pamela Ronald, a rice geneticist and chair of UC Davis' Plant Genomics Program; Patrick Canlas, Kenong Xu and Xia Xu.