The Rice Foundation Funds Research Project to Enhance Fissure Resistance in U.S. Rice

STUTTGART, AR — Drs. Shannon Pinson and Yulin Jia, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, and Dr. James Gibbons, University of Arkansas Rice Experiment Station, recently completed a Rice Foundation-funded project, New Knowledge and Improved Methods to Increase Breeders’ Ability to Develop Rice Varieties with Enhanced Fissure Resistance.

For the first time ever, the project documented the successful selection for fissure resistance — resistance to kernel cracking — among early breeding progeny based on resistance to in-lab fissuring. However, while the lab method remains too laborious for widespread breeder use, the project suggests using the identification of molecular tags linked with fissure-resistant genes to enable marker-assisted selection of fissure resistance.

The researchers collected data supporting the hypothesis that the rice varieties Cypress and Saber have two different fissure-resistant mechanisms.

Two populations suitable for mapping of fissure-resistant genes from both Cypress and Saber, and for studying the grain traits that are responsible for fissure resistance were created, facilitating continued research.

Contact: Chuck Wilson, (870) 673-7541