ROTAVIRUSES are one of the leading causes of severe diarrhea in children across the world. According to WHO estimates, 527,000 children under five, most of them from low-income countries, die of rotavirus infections annually. At present, live vaccines are available to combat the virus. However, there have been some reports of infections induced from vaccines. At a time when vaccines are turning against unsuspecting patients, scientists from Tokyo University have turned to rice for a solution. They have tweaked the genes of a rice variety to make it produce antibodies against rotavirus. The antibody is found naturally in llamas, which are resistant to rotavirus. Researchers engineered the rice, dubbed as MucoRice ARP1, by introducing rotavirus antibody gene from llamas in rice genome.
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