Anna McClung, Supervisory Research Geneticist
Tesanai 2 is a cultivar developed in China that has excellent yield and disease resistance in the southern US	The objectives of the rice genetics and breeding program are to: 1)      Develop improved rice cultivars that are adapted for production in the Southern United States. 2)      Develop novel genetic resources that can be used by the rice research community in breeding and to study the genomic location and genetic control of traits important to the rice industry. 3)      Evaluate genetic resources for their resistance to diseases and physiological stresses; yield potential under diverse environments; and milling, cooking, processing and sensory qualities. 4)      Maintain, characterize, and distribute genetic resources to the rice research community through the Genetic Stocks Oryza (GSOR) collection.
Some of the field studies that are being conducted currently include:   1)      Evaluation of the yield potential of high yielding cultivars developed from Asian genetic resources as compared with conventional commercial cultivars and hybrids. 2)      Evaluation of the yield potential of a diverse group of rice cultivars that have been developed for specialty markets including aromatics, pigmented rice, cultivars particularly suited for parboiling and canning, and cultivars having enhanced nutritional quality. 3)      Evaluation of the yield potential of breeding lines developed from a cross with a wild relative of rice.	Wild relatives of rice (on left) tend to be much taller and later that commercial cultivars (on right) but may possess useful genes for other traits   IAC600 is an aromatic rice with dark purple bran that was developed in Brazil