Question: how many solutions have you worked out with rice?

Caragh Whitehead answered on 12 Nov 2019:

We are still looking at all our data as it is from a very large project which involved a lot of different rice samples. However, we have started identifying different genes that cause plants to be more easily broken down into the sugars and other components that they are made off. Some of these genes also play a role in other functions of the plant, like how tall it grows or how much rice is makes.

What we do know is that cows also prefer to eat rice straw that is easy to break down as well as the ones that don’t take too much of a mineral known as silica. This silica collects in the leaves of rice and make them very rough to touch but also protect them from being eaten. If you burn these leaves the silica turns to glass. It is no wonder that cows aren’t too happy with eating these leaves.