Production and Identification of Interspecific Hybrids of Bulu Rice and Its Wild Relatives

News source: Indonesian Agricultural
Biotechnology and Genetic Resources
Research Institute (IABIOGRI), Indonesia
See PDF file for e-mail address., 2002-01-01

Traits of Bulu Rice

Bulu rice is a native rice from Indonesia which belongs to the Japonica race of Oryza sativa. It has many good traits, such as a large number of spikelets, large grains, a sturdy stem, and few but productive tillers. However, it is susceptible to insects and diseases. Wild species of rice have useful genes for resistance to insects and diseases, and tolerance to adverse soils. Therefore, it is important to introduce useful genes from wild species into bulu rice.

Interspecific Hybrids

Interspecific hybrids were produced from crosses between bulu rice and its wild relatives. The hybrids were characterized at the seedling stage, using a dominant morphological marker, base color trait, and a biochemical marker or isozyme, shikimate dehydrogenase I (sdh-l) to identify whether the hybrids were true hybrids or not. Both markers showed the same result. Out of thirty-five hybrid seedlings produced, thirty-three hybrids were proven to be interspecific hybrids or true-hybrids, while the other two were selfed seedlings.

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