The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said it is banking on an advanced and more efficient breeding process to produce climate-resilient rice seeds.
PhilRice scientist Roel Suralta said precision breeding enables plant breeders to target traits that can be quantitatively associated with specific genes, which enhance plant performance.
“Precision breeding has been practiced in the Philippines for years. A classic example of PhilRice-released variety that is also a product of precision breeding is the NSIC Rc194, or Submarino 1, which has a submergence-tolerant trait,” Suralta said.
“Other PhilRice varieties with improved disease-resistance are also a product of precision breeding,” he said.
PhilRice said precision breeding involves the transfer of specific desired traits—such as those that can tolerate drought conditions or resist certain diseases—into existing outstanding cultivars.
“It improves speed and precision, as desirable traits within the entire map of genetic material of related plants are identified and targeted,” Suralta said.
These genes can be “tagged” using genetic markers uniquely associated with the desired traits.
Rather than crossing the parents’ genes and growing the offspring to maturity to check if the trait is present, breeders can search for these discrete markers or “tags” at the early seedling stage, significantly shortening the breeding program, according to PhilRice.
“Conventional breeding takes more time, as it entails backcrossing of generations, then selecting and field-testing them to get the desired result or cultivar,” said PhilRice, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.
PhilRice said it is currently conducting studies using precision breeding to map and identify genes that promote root plasticity, tolerant to anaerobic conditions, resistant to pests and diseases, and quantitative trait loci/genes that help increase rice yield under drought condition.
Dr. Rosalyn B. Angeles-Shim, assistant professor from Nagoya University in Japan, said precision breeding could increase the yield of rice and enhance its tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress.
“The use of the technology had resulted in the identification of Gn1a and the Wealthy Farmer’s Panicle [WFP] as two potential genes that can increase rice production in Africa. Transferring Gn1a to existing rice cultivars increases grain number in rice, while WFP promotes primary branching,” Angeles-Shim said in a conference held at PhilRice.
Through the breeding program, the Wonder Rice Initiative for Food Security and Health (WISH) of the International Rice Research Institute and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the existing rice cultivars in which these genes were transferred are now being tested.
“The WISH project aims to increase rice production in Africa. Instead of introducing new varieties to farmers, we focused on improving the ones that are known and widely used and adopted in the area by breeding them with the identified genes. This promotes faster acceptance by the rice farmers in the area,” Angeles-Shim said.
Image credits: PhilRice