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THere's some good perspective on the genetic engineering of rice in the
context of grasses in "The Molecular Biology of Rice", Ko Shimamoto,
Science 270, 1772-1773 (1995).
 
The article claims a common pattern to the genome of grasses  of  order of
the genes in functional terms. This indeed suggests that rational genetic
transfer between grasses such as barley and rice can be done. Gluten genes
aren't going to pop up unexpectedly. Hmm, what's the "function of gluten in
a grass?
 
Interesting numbers on grass evolution: rice's genome 1/10 the size of
human, later corn is 6 times rice and later(?)  wheat is 34 times larger
than rice.Wheat's being larger than human?
 
                                                Kemp Randolph
                                                Long Island.