Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #141202

Title: ENHANCING U.S. RICE CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT WITH MOLECULAR MARKER TECHNOLOGY

Author
item McClung, Anna
item Fjellstrom, Robert
item BORMANS, CONCETTA - TEXAS A&M UNIV
item Bergman, Christine
item Pinson, Shannon
item Shank, Aaron
item PARK, WILLIAM - TEXAS A&M UNIV

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/7/2002
Publication Date: 1/11/2003
Citation: MCCLUNG, A.M., FJELLSTROM, R.G., BORMANS, C.A., BERGMAN, C.J., PINSON, S.R., SHANK, A.R., PARK, W.D. ENHANCING U.S. RICE CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT WITH MOLECULAR MARKER TECHNOLOGY. PLANT AND ANIMAL GENOME CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. 2003. p. 55.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: As part of our U.S. rice improvement program, the objectives of this research have included: developing markers for traits that are relevant to U.S. rice breeding programs and are informative in narrow-based germplasm, developing high throughput marker genotyping methods, using markers in practical breeding applications, and transferring this technology to U.S. breeding programs. Our initial focus has been to use markers to eliminate undesirable alleles of simply inherited traits. This allows breeders to expand the number of progeny having desirable alleles of major genes and thus will increase the opportunity for genetic recombination in quantitatively inherited traits. These markers have been used to verify F1 progeny, expedite backcrossing, eliminate residual variability during seed purification, fingerprint common commercial cultivars and eliminate seed mixtures and outcrosses, discard progeny during early generations that do not possess desirable alleles, screen for traits during off-seasons, and select for genes that would be obscured by the environment or other genes. We are continuing to extend marker technology for use with other traits, including those with complex inheritance. However, until breeders are convinced that this technology allows selection to be more effective or efficient they will not embrace it, thus we are working directly with breeders using breeding populations of their choice. Hopefully, such interactions with breeders will result in the acceptance and integration of molecular techniques into rice cultivar development programs.