Chinese scientists announced on Monday that they have identified a gene that has played a key role in increasing the yield of China's high-yielding super rice.

The gene is known as DEP1, but its mutant is called dep1, which can accelerate the division of rice cells and produce more grains per panicle. The mutant will become an important tool for rice breeding.

Researcher Fu Xiangdong, from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his team has found the gene dep1 in high-yielding rice varieties grown in vast quantities in the Yangtze Plains and northeastern China.

Fu also said the gene can have a similar function in other crops such as wheat and barley, raising hopes of breeding high-yielding cereal varieties.

A research paper has been accepted by the journal Nature Genetics and already appears in its Advance Online Publication.

China's Ministry of Agriculture launched the project of super rice strains in 1996, which has brought about many high-yielding rice varieties since then. The yields of some varieties now could exceed 12,000 kilograms per hectare.

Source: Xinhua