McCouch: First molecular map of rice

From IRRI Pioneer Interview: http://archive.irri.org/publications/today/McCouch.asp

I became a full-fledged graduate student in 1986. During that time, I worked very closely with two Chinese colleagues [Z. H. Yu and Z. Y. Wang] who were also Rockefeller-funded scholars. Our threesome—the two scholars and myself—put together that first RFLP map of rice which was published in 1988 [Theoretical and Applied Genetics: Molecular mapping of rice chromosomes, 76:815-829]. It was a great achievement of teamwork. We learned a lot from Steve Tanksley, a tomato geneticist, who was making his first foray into cereals, specifically rice.

The RFLP technology, as many know, is cumbersome and very tedious. It involved a lot of radioactive work and almost a 24-hour routine in the lab. We worked day and night to develop this map, and it looked like a great accomplishment in its day—135 markers across the 12 chromosomes, published in 1988. Anyway, it was the first molecular map of rice, and very historic and we were very excited.

I made my first trip to IRRI to present the results of that work in 1988. I being stunned by the number of people in so many diverse fields, all of them concentrated on rice. I was excited by it all. I think people were equally excited by the work we were doing at Cornell. There was a very good synergy and I think that first visit was the thing that cemented the relationship that would evolve into a job opportunity at IRRI when I finished my PhD in 1990.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• McCouch
• Cornell
• University
• International
• Rice
• Research
• Institute
• RFLP
• Molecular
• Map