Rice in deep water

摘要

Many otherwise productive cultivars of rice suffer badly if immersed in water for long. The identification of a gene variant that confers tolerance to this threat has practical potential. Like all crops, rice plants of course require water to grow. But you can have too much of a good thing: when excessive water results in prolonged submergence, the effects on rice production can be devastating. Hence the significance of Xu and colleagues' investigation of the genetics of submergence tolerance, described on page 705 of this issue.