ORYZA LONGISTAMINATA’S CHROMOSOME SEGMENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR AGRONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TRAITS FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SMART RICE

Abstract

Modern agriculture using excess fossil energy has led to high productivity of crops. However, it hasinduced several adverse effects on the global environments. For sustainable global environments in the 21stcentury, environment-smart agriculture  systems (ESAS) should immediately be developed. One possible idea for ESAS is to breed low-input-adaptable (LIA) crops. In low-input conditions, plant biomass decreases significantly, resulting in lower yields.  Oryza longistaminata, a wild species grown only in Africa, possesses several latent useful traits including a vigorous biomass observed in low input conditions. This is an important trait for LIA crops. Hence, this study aims to analyze QTLs for several important traits for large biomass of  O.longistaminata. MwM,  O. longistaminata,  collected at a valley near Mombasa Kenya, was successfully crossed with T-65, a japonica variety. LIA candidates were selected from selfed pedigree of the cross under non-fertilized conditions of IPSR. After their characterisation, these lines were found to possess important traits for high productivity in low-input conditions. Genotyping using genome-wide SSR markers demonstrated that LIA-1 carries several chromosome segments of MwM. QTL analysis for several important traits for large biomass of MwM was conducted in F2 of the cross between LIA-1 and Norin 18. The results suggested that MwM-derived chromosome segments locate QTLs for important traits for LIA rice. This information is useful to breed New Basmati which could achieve higher productivity in low input conditions in Kenya.