Climate-friendly rice recognized as a top science development of 2015

The creation of a new kind of rice which gives off nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions during its growth has earned kudos for a team of scientists from three continents, including the lead investigator at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The new kind of rice grows in a manner that nearly eliminates the production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. And rice is a big source of methane: Scientists estimate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 15 percent of global methane emissions come from rice paddies around the world. Methane is 20 times more efficient at trapping heat in atmosphere than its better-known counterpart, carbon dioxide, making the team's contribution especially important for climate issues.

The research has been recognized with a "Best of What's New" award for 2015 by Popular Science. The work was named the grand prize winner in the magazine's engineering category, one of 10 categories in which a total of 100 research developments around the globe were recognized. The awards are described in the December issue of the magazine.

To create the rice, the team identified a gene in barley that directs how that plant uses carbon, then spliced that gene into common rice. The change redirected the way the rice plant uses the carbon it pulls from the atmosphere, causing the plant to send more carbon into the plant's grain and stems and less into its roots.

That change increases the amount of starch and the yield of rice and reduces the carbon available to the roots, where bacteria convert much of the substance into methane.