Flood-tolerant rice: where are we now?

An IRRI Seminar

By Endang M. Septiningsih
Senior Scientist-Molecular Genetics
Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology
IRRI

16 April  2015
1:15-2:15 p.m.
Havener Auditorium
IRRI




Abstracts:

Excess water can cause serious problems to the production of rice in areas that lack proper drainage, which leads to complete submergence after seeding and the vegetative stage, or stagnant flooding through to maturity and harvesting. Although widespread dissemination of the SUB1 QTL has had a profound impact by allowing rice crops to survive flash floods up to 2 or 3 weeks, greater submergence tolerance is needed in areas experiencing longer or more severe flood events.

In her exit seminar, Dr. Septiningsih will describe her efforts, over the past 9 years at IRRI, in addressing the challenges of growing rice in flood-prone environments. She has recently identified novel QTLs complementary to SUB1 that show promise for more robust submergence tolerance. Likewise, significant progress has been made in identifying important QTLs for anaerobic germination and stagnant flooding tolerance, and promising breeding lines have been developed through conventional and molecular breeding approaches. Further investigation is needed for gene discovery, characterization, allele mining, and pyramiding at these important QTL targets to meet the challenges of the future.

See you there!