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The aroma of rice is considered the most appetizing charm Its softness and sweet fragrance make Hom Mali rice ever more popular. The sweet aroma of this rice comes from a blend of more than 200 volatile compounds, but the main component is 2AP (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline), produced only in fragrant rice, pandan leaf, Pandanus-like flowers, and some fungi and bacteria. Scientifically, the role of the aroma compound 2AP in plants and microorganisms is not yet clearly known, but nutritionally, the aroma of rice makes people want to eat more.
Which biochemical process produces this volatile aroma compound was unclear until 2004, when a group of Thai scientists discovered the genetic code, or gene, that is the key to producing aroma in Thai Hom Mali rice, the same gene found in every fragrant rice variety in the world. The genetic code of the aroma gene has thus been revealed.
Decoding the aroma gene
The aroma gene is recessive: when fragrant rice is crossed with non-fragrant rice, the offspring are not fragrant, meaning the non-fragrant gene is dominant. In the past, scientists from many countries, such as Thailand, the United States, France and Australia, found that this important genetic code is probably located in a small region of chromosome 8, positioning it by comparison using DNA markers, but no one could get close to the gene because separating fragrant rice from non-fragrant rice is difficult, until Thai scientists succeeded in creating “twin rice” (isogenic lines), which finally led to the discovery of the aroma gene, a world first.
