Rice (Oryza sativaL.) is one of the most important staple food
crops for more than half of the world’s population. Rice also
has the smallest genome and has been the model for functional
genomics in cereal crops. The genetic and functional syntenies
observed among cereal crops over the years has made rice the
most important cereal crop for the discovery and utilization of
agronomically important genes for crop improvement. The
availability of the whole genome sequence (Goff et al. 2002,
Yu et al. 2002), high-density physical and genetic maps
(McCouch et al. 1994), and amenable genetic transformation
systems (Hiei et al. 1994, Christou 1997) are useful molecular
tools for investigating and utilizing useful genes for crop
improvement.