News Updates

• Today's white rice is mutation spread by early farmers, researchers say. 16 Aug 2007 Cornell University Chronicle Online
  
• Red or White? Nature "Research Highlights", vol 448 23 Aug 2007, pg 843
  
• Global Dissemination of a Single Mutation Conferring White Pericarp in rice. PLoS Genetics 3: e133 (2007)
  

Welcome to the McCouch Lab Webpage

Here you will find information regarding the research interests of the group, recent publications, current and former lab members, and a calendar with upcoming events.

The McCouch group investigates natural variation in the genus Oryza, focusing on how it evolved, how it is distributed in both domesticated and wild Oryza species, how it conditions complex phenotypes and how it can be efficiently utilized in rice improvement.

We have pioneered studies demonstrating that low-yielding wild and exotic Oryza species harbor genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) that can be used to enhance the performance of modern, high-yielding rice cultivars. This work is done in collaboration with scientists and breeders in Asia, Africa, North and South America.

In collaboration with colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Lab, we develop and curate Gramene, a large, publicly available comparative plant genome database (www.gramene.org) that integrates knowledge from many different disciplines. Gramene allows students and researchers to link molecular genetic information in the grasses with knowledge about the way plants grow and develop in diverse environments.

© Susan R. McCouch Lab. All Rights Restricted.