Development of the “Third-Generation” Hybrid Rice in China

摘要

Rice is a major cereal crop for China. The development of the ‘‘three-line" hybrid rice system based on cytoplasmic male sterility in the 1970 s（first-generation） and the ‘‘two-line" hybrid rice system based on photoperiod-and thermo-sensitive genic male-sterile lines（second-generation）in the 1980 s has contributed significantly to rice yield increase and food security in China. Here we describe the development and implementation of the ‘‘third-generation" hybrid rice breeding system that is based on a transgenic approach to propagate and utilize stable recessive nuclear male sterile lines, and as such, the male sterile line and hybrid rice produced using such a system is nontransgenic. Such a system should overcome the intrinsic problems of the ‘‘first-generation" and‘‘second-generation" hybrid rice systems and hold great promise to further boost production of hybrid rice and other crops.