Research institutes spearhead rice study in China

摘要

Rice is one of the most important food crops in China, but substantial increases in grain yield are required to feed the country's growing human population. In the past half-century, rice yield has benefited from two major genetic improvements: use of the semidwarf1 (sd1) gene has improved the harvestable proportion of the plant ('the harvest index') and increased its ability to withstand bending ('lodging resistance'); and the production of more hybrids has led to increased hybrid vigour ('heterosis'). Grain yield is a complex trait that has three main components: the number of shoot branches (tillers) per plant; the number of grains per inflorescence (or 'panicle'); and the grain weight. To further improve the yield potential, rice breeding programmes must also focus on the plant architecture to generate 'green rice' with super yield and ideal architectures.