Scientists have created a new variety of rice (GMO rice) by transferring a barley gene into rice plant, says a study published in the journal Nature. About half the world's population consume rice and when rice is grown, about 25 million to 100 million metric tons of methane is emitted into the atmosphere every year which has an important role in the global green-house gas emission.

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With consistently increasing human population there is a need for production of more rice which would in turn increase methane gas emission. The researchers, in order to find a solution for this problem, incorporated barley gene into rice plant and produced plants that would be highly starchy and productive as well as emit less methane, according to Los Angeles Time.

Chuanxin Sun, a plant biologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the lead author of a study told Scientific American about traditional rice cultivation that "This type of rice may be particularly useful in a predicted climate with higher temperatures, which will accelerate methane emissions from paddies, as methane emissions are temperature dependent." He also noted that "The [GMO] rice may counteract the acceleration," according to Take Part.

Methane-producing bacteria thrive on the sugars secreted by the rice roots in the oxygen free soil when the rice fields are flooded. Methane gas is then passed on from soil to atmosphere by the rice plant itself. Methane in the atmosphere traps the heat contributing to global greenhouse emission about 84 times stronger than carbon di oxide, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The researcher and team, considering previous researches that noted that rice plants with smaller roots emit less methane, transferred barley genes into rice plants hoping to produce rice crops with thin roots and robust grains. The researchers compared traditional Nipponbare rice and genetically modified rice plants by planting them in two field settings in laboratory. The investigators observed both the plants summer through fall and measured the methane production levels.

It was found that genetically modified plants produced far less methane than the traditional ones as well as 10 percent more starchy grains than the later. Paul Bodelier, a microbial ecologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology noted on GMO rice that "a tremendous opportunity for more-sustainable rice cultivation."

TagsGreenhouse Emission, Genetically Modified Rice, Methane, Carbon-di-Oxide, GMO