Designer rice could help beat diabetes, cancer and obesity
University of Tasmania, October 21, 2016
Scientists have discovered a way to increase the production of resistant starch in rice, which could have beneficial health consequences for more than half of the world’s population.
University of Tasmania School of Biological Sciences Professor Steven Smith is an expert on starch production in plants, and author of a paper released in the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Smith is working on improving the nutritional quality of rice by changing the digestibility of the starch that makes up most of the rice grain, after discovering the two genes which influence the amount of resistant starch produced by the rice.