Thai’ variety rice

Figure 10.13 displays the variation of the emission maximum as a function of the excitation wavelength for a Thai variety rice (a) and a basmati rice (b). 

Last spring, I missed a few of the best gardening days to visit the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. There, Dr. Barbara Schaal spoke about her studies with rice weeds. In collaboration with colleagues in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Schaal s research team found that a wild rice species can cross-hybridize with domesticated non-GE rice at a low frequency resulting in a hybrid variety of rice (Schaal 2007). The hybrids do not thrive in the wild because the wild rice species is better adapted and therefore quickly dominate the hybrids. For Thai farmers, however, the hybrids create a weedy nuisance. The weeds are hard to remove because the seeds shatter and build up in the soil leading to more weeds the next season. Yields of the rice crop decline proportionately with the increase in weeds. 

Emission of intrinsic fluorophores of crops depends on the structure of their microenvironments (molecular and / or cellular levels). We are going to describe here the emission of different varieties of corns (standard known as Safran, the amylose extender mutant and sweet) and of different varieties of white rice (Surinam, Thai, Sherbati and Basmati). Our results indicate that within each species, each variety has a characteristic fluorescence. Also we compared the emission of non genetically modified and genetically modified soya. Genetically modified organisms display fluorescence emission spectra different from those of the same non-GMO variety. 

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