Project Number: 3640-21000-026-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Apr 14, 2008
End Date: Apr 13, 2013

Objective:
The long-term goal of this project is to develop improved wildrice cultivars through conventional breeding and marker-assisted selection for key traits affecting production efficiency. New genetic knowledge about these key traits is sought to develop cultivars more effectively and efficiently. Objective 1: Develop genetic resources with traits influencing production efficiency (seed shattering resistance, disease resistances, panicle type, and reduced height) and characterize the inheritance of those traits. Objective 2: Identify candidate genes for, and useful markers that are closely associated with, shattering resistance and disease resistances, using wildrice lines and mapping populations as well as comparative genetic and genomic information from Oryza sativa. Objective 3: Develop wildrice cultivars through conventional breeding and marker-assisted selection that have greater production efficiency and reduced height, that exploit heterosis, and that are more resistant to shattering, diseases, and other biotic and abiotic stresses.

Approach:
Genetic resources of wildrice (Zizania palustris) with improved seed shattering resistance, disease resistance, panicle type, and reduced height will be developed by identifying and selecting from existing genetic variability in wild rice populations using conventional breeding methods including recurrent selection. Phenotypic data from controlled crosses will be analyzed to characterize qualitative and quantitative inheritance patterns. Molecular markers and candidate genes for shattering resistance will be identified using QTL analysis based on comparative genomics with Oryza sativa and for resistance to two major wildrice diseases, fungal brown spot caused by Bipolaris oryzae and stem rot caused by Nakataea sigmoidea, by comparative genomics and gene expression analyses. The developed germplasm, genetic information, and molecular markers will be used to breed wildrice cultivars that have greater production efficiency including reduced height and lodging, reduced grain shattering losses, and reduced impact on productivity by diseases and other yield-limiting factors using both conventional and marker-assisted selection. The plant phenotyping and breeding research will be conducted at the University of Minnesota, North Central Research and Outreach Center, Grand Rapids, MN, and the molecular marker and gene expression research with collaborators on the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus.