ARS | Publication request: Development of new rice cultivars for conventional and value-added markets

Submitted to: American Chemical Society Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: December 17, 2010
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
Repository URL: http://www://abstracts.acs.org/chem/241nm/program/view.php?obj_id=69847
Citation: Mcclung, A.M., Fjellstrom, R.G., Park, W.D., Bergman, C., Mccouch, S. 2011. Development of new rice cultivars for conventional and value-added markets . American Chemical Society Abstracts. 90.

Technical Abstract: Rice is a staple food crop for half of the world's population. The United States supplies about 10% of the rice that is the world market. US rice production is located in the mid-south and California, with half of the country's production located in Arkansas. Domestic rice consumption in the US has increased due to rice being promoted a healthy whole grain, its use in many convenience food products, and interest in specialty markets like the aromatic basmati and jasmine rices. Using conventional breeding methods takes about 10 years to develop new rice variety. We have developed genetic markers that are linked to major genes controlling disease resistance and rice cooking, processing, and sensory quality. These markers have been used to shorten the breeding cycle by three to five years, and facilitate stacking genes in new cultivars in novel ways. This has resulted in the development of rice cultivars with improved disease resistance and requires less fungicide use. In addition, we have developed rice cultivars that have novel starch properties in the grain which are being used by parboiling and canning industries. These rice cultivars have less starch solids loss and better grain integrity after undergoing industrial processing. In collaboration with an industry partner we developed a rice variety that has novel grain chemistry properties that, when processed, produces a quick cooking brown rice, thus combining whole grain health benefits with convenient cooking. More recently, efforts have been made to expand the gene pool available in US rice breeding. We have incorporated chromosomal segments from a wild weedy species of rice that has improved yield over the original parent cultivar by 20%. Use of genomic technology is allowing us to increase breeding efficiency and identify novel genes that will increase crop value and adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses.