Chapters authored
Breeding Rice for Improved Grain Quality
Rice grain quality improvement has become very crucial for most breeding programs around the world. Grain quality is a complex trait which comprises milling, appearance (grain size and chalkiness), cooking and eating (starch properties including apparent amylose content (AAC), gelatinization temperature (GT), gel consistency and paste viscosity measured using rapid visco analyzer measured using rapid visco analyzer (RVA) as well as nutritional quality. Many genes/quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the various quality traits have been identified/cloned. This has enabled the development of functional markers to facilitate the selection for this complex trait. Functional markers, especially those targeting mutations in the BADH2, waxy, alk and GS3 genes, are highly associated with aroma, AAC/RVA, GT and grain size, respectively; and thus effective for marker-assisted breeding. Different alleles can be combined through gene pyramiding to improve rice grain quality for various consumers. To be able to meet future needs, rice breeders must exploit modern marker technologies such as genomic selection (GS) to take care of the effects of both major and minor genes for grain quality as well as high yield, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance.
Part of the book: Advances in International Rice Research