Project
Exploring natural variations: win-win in grain yield & protein concentration
Improving rice grain yield and quality is vital for global food security. Concerted actions of carbon and nitrogen assimilation co-determine final biomass production, grain yield, and grain protein concentration of rice crops. However, the two assimilation processes can become antagonistic: the more grain protein synthesis requires more nitrogen that partly comes from remobilization of nitrogen from leaves by breaking down leaf proteins and other nitrogenous compounds, and this results in leaf senescence and ultimately leads to lower yield. Balancing the two assimilation processes is required to simultaneously improve rice yield and grain protein concentration.
Introduction/background
Rice, as one of the most significant staple crops, feeds 2.5 to 3.5 billion people,
especially in developing countries with low income in Asia. A continuous increase in rice production is crucial to global food security. From a global perspective, to meet the food demand and the growing world population in 2050, at least an 18% increase is achieved relative to 2010. Meanwhile, improving grain quality, such as protein concentration, has been a breeding goal in recent years to solve the “hidden hunger”. Thus it is necessary to enrich the yield and protein concentration of rice so as to enhance the energy and nutritional intake.
Project description
Natural variations in traits (such as yield components, grain nitrogen concentration) will be phenotyped for two rice populations - one being a GWAS (genome-wide association study) panel and the other being a bi-parental backcross-inbred lines. GWAS, QTL analysis, transcriptome analysis, and transgenics will be conducted to identify and confirm QTLs and genes that compromise rice yield and protein concentration. Based on GWAS/QTL results, a subset of the genotypes from the two populations and transgenic lines will further be phenotyped at crop stand scale to assess potential values of utilizing the confirmed QTLs and genes in breeding for a simultaneously improved rice yield and quality.