Three proves to be the magic number as this series of new blog posts will testify!

These perky posts boast the bravado of a rice project which has well and truly been in the limelight of late – and profile the main scientists behind the scenes.

We are of course talking about the big-time personality and soon-to-be household name PSTOL1 – the phosphorous uptake gene discovered by a group of international scientists working on what has come to be regarded as something of a ‘celebrity project’ in the scientific community, to quote one of them. The posts profile Joko Prasetiyono (ICABIOGRAD, Indonesia), Matthias Wissuwa (JIRCAS) and Sigrid Heuer (IRRI).

• The ‘R’ for ‘reproducing’ blogpost regenerates the senses, giving us the benefits for Indonesia where the self-confessed rice-loving smart breeder, Joko Prasetiyono, recounts his rise from GCP-funded PhD student back in 2005, to part of the internationally-recognised triumphant team responsible for the discovery of PSTOL1.
• The rocking ‘R’ blogpost celebrates GCP’s very own rolling stone, Matthias Wissuwa, who has ceaselessly and seamlessly laboured on this project on a 15-year gruelling world tour across several employers!
• The ‘R’ for rooting blogpost takes a worm’s eye view of things, zooming in on the ‘miracle organ’ that soaks up nutrients from below the ground. The post maps out the project’s key Gene Trackers, with the spotlight on the Principal Investigator, Sigrid Heuer.

This trinity of posts about our triplet rice researchers also illustrates GCP’s capacity- and community- building efforts over the years, and points to a bright future, where better rice with less fertiliser may soon be growing in farmers’ fields!

‘Superstar’ scientist, Matthias Wissuwa, is so thrilled about the outcome of the Pup1 project that he’s hoping to bring out the next instalment in the not-too-distant future: Pup2: the sequel. Watch this space!

(Psst!...Prefer a shorter version in pictures? We've got it! See it in either Flickr or Facebook. Also a short video clip from BBC World News)