Syrian War Prompts First Withdrawal of Seeds from Svalbard Global Seed Vault |
 The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has requested to withdraw the backup seeds that they deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to restart their collection away from the ongoing conflict in their previous home in Aleppo, Syria. ICARDA is currently based in Beirut, Lebanon, and requesting seeds from their gene bank in Aleppo is getting more and more difficult.
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Scientists Develop Rice with High Folate Stability |
 Researchers from Ghent University in Belgium have succeeded in stabilizing folates in biofortified rice. The research team developed a new rice prototype, and applied two strategies for the folate to remain stable for long storage. The first strategy involved binding folates with a folate binding protein. This protein is well studied in mammals, but unknown in plants. It occurs in milk and protects folate from degradation. Based on a folate binding protein from bovine milk, the folate content of rice remained stable upon long storage.
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3,000 Rice Genomes Data Available on the AWS Cloud |
 The International Rice Research Institute announced that the 3,000 Rice Genomes Project (3K RGP) has successfully sequenced 3,024 rice varieties from 89 countries. This big data is a massive source of information for understanding the natural genetic variation in rice and for discovery of novel genes linked to economically important traits. It is expected that this project will help speed up the development of better rice varieties to provide food for the growing world population. The desirable traits for improvement in rice include nutritional quality, tolerance to pest and diseases, resistance to flood and drought, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
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A biweekly update on gene editing research, regulations, and impact
produced by ISAAA Inc. |
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| A monthly update on gene drive research and development provided by ISAAA in collaboration with the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research |
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Scientists from the University of California Riverside and partners have sequenced the 
