NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The 3000 Rice Genomes Project (3K RGP) is using DNANexus' cloud-based informatics platform to handle its data processing needs as part of efforts to develop improved varieties of the food crop.
The 3K RGP project is a partnership between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the International Rice Research Institute, and BGI. The partners are working with other global collaborators to identify genetic differences between rice strains, which could potentially improve the nutritional content of the food staple, its tolerance to climatic changes, and strengthen resistance to disease and pests, leading to more resilient rice varieties with higher yields that can better support global food demands.
So far, researchers involved in the 3K RGP effort have analyzed 3,000 rice genomes and generated more than 100 terabytes of data. According to the company, the consortium is using DNANexus' platform to complete genome mapping and variant calling more than 200 times faster than was previously possible and without incurring the additional costs that would be associated with purchasing and maintaining compute infrastructure.
Financial and other terms of the use agreement were not disclosed.