Tuesday 4 September 2012

Breeding new flood-tolerant rice varieties

IRRI Seminar

By Bertrand Collard
Scientist (plant breeding)
Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Division
IRRI

1315-1415 H, Thursday, 13 September 2012
Havener Auditorium, IRRI

Video of seminar on Ustream (60:23) 
Seminar slides on Scribd


Abstract:

A major milestone in the development of flood-tolerant rice varieties was the discovery and characterization of Sub1, a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) conferring about 10 to 14 days of submergence tolerance (caused by flash flooding).

Sub1 was subsequently incorporated into many rice mega-varieties such as Swarna and IR64 using an approach called marker-assisted backcrossing during the last 10 years. Because the essential properties of the original varieties were retained (such as yield and quality), these new Sub1 varieties have been—and continue to be—widely adopted by farmers. Considerable further work is required, however, to develop improved varieties for flood-prone environments.

In this seminar, Bertrand will explain previous work developing Sub1 varieties and report on current breeding activities. Ideas for critical future research activities (especially for Phase 3 of the STRASA program) will be proposed. Finally, the integration of the current submergence breeding program within the new PBGB breeding pipelines will be outlined.

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