Newfound rice gene shifts flowering by 1.5 hours to dodge heat damage (opens in new tab)

With El Niño-driven heat and prolonged dry spells threatening rice production, scientists from Japan's National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), other Japanese research institutions and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have discovered a gene that helps rice "escape" heat during its most sensitive flowering stage. The gene, called EMF3 (Early Morning Flowering 3), shifts rice flowering to the early morning, when temperatures are cooler. By flowering earlier in...