CURRENT EFFORTS

A coordinated rice genetics and physiology program began with the establishment of the Rice Research Facility on the Davis Campus of the University of California in 1970. The UCD Rice Facility is partially supported by annual grants from the Rice Research Board. A USDA geneticist and a University plant physiologist work together on basic aspects of rice improvement. Their research findings are used by the Rice Experiment Station plant breeders to speed varietal development at Biggs.

Already the facility attracts foreign rice scientists who contribute ideas and materials as well as study at the unit's facilities. In 1971-2 a visiting scientist from Taiwan was instrumental in developing the very promising short stature Calrose selection, D7, which in 11 large plot trials during the past 2 years equaled the yield of the tall check variety, CS-M3. D7 is 10-14 inches shorter than CS-M3 and hence is considerably more lodging resistant.

The T(N)1 short stature gene is being used successfully to develop short, lodging-resistant varieties for California. The UCD seed irradiation project is providing additional sources of short stature, which may be even more beneficial than T(N)1.

USDA researchers are seeking additional seedling vigor sources in introduced germ plasm. Hungarian and other European varieties are the present sources, but these have extremely weak straw.

Scientists have found several male sterile genes that may be useful in rice breading programs for making larger numbers of crosses with less effort. They also have developed a complete set of trisomics (plants with one extra chromosome) in CS-M3. The trisomics are useful in basic genetic studies which may ultimately be useful in development of improved varieties.

Supporting Services

All rice in the U. S, traces back to foreign introductions as the crop is not native here. Through 1968, some 5,000 varieties were introduced by the USDA. Introductions were limited to some 300 lines per year because this number was all that could be handled through plant quarantine tests in the USDA greenhouses at Beltsville, Maryland. Beginning in 1969 the annual rate increased greatly due largely to the facilities made available to the USDA by the University of California Field Station at El Centro, and by supplemental funding by the California rice industry. More than 10,000 newly introduced lines have been grown there in the past few years. Located near El Centro, the station is 350 miles from the nearest rice fields and thus sufficiently isolated so that the quarantine generation can be grown safely.

The introduction from other countries of new rice varieties and genetic lines has been strikingly speeded by the USDA through cooperation of UC's Dr. Wm. F. Lehman and the UC Imperial Valley Field Station near E1 Centro. USDA's Dr. C. Roy Adair (left) and Dr. Lehman make selections for use in the California rice variety breeding program.

The broad cooperative USDA and California program provides rice breeders with much quicker access to promising lines from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and other plant breeding centers of the world. Disease and insect resistance, short stature, and heat and cold tolerance are among the characteristics being found among the introductions.

USDA Rice Quality Laboratory workers at Beaumont, Texas, do physicochemical tests that serve as guides to U. S. breeders in developing new varieties of high quality. During the past two years the Texas laboratory annually has tested 3,200 samples from the California breeding program at Biggs and some 100 samples from the genetics program at Davis. The dollar value of this service alone has amounted to $24,000 per year.

The USDA Protein Laboratory at Beltsville analyses an additional 2,000 California samples for protein content each year to aid in the development of varieties with high protein.

Much of the supporting research required for the Comprehensive Rice Research Program is not visible to growers, but highly important. In 1974 USDA Rice Quality Laboratory workers at Beaumont, Texas, conducted physicochemical grain quality tests on 3300 lines for the California Rice Experiment Station plant breeders and the UCD geneticists. The value of this service alone amounted to $24,000.

 

Stationed at UC Davis, USDA's Dr. J. Neil Rutger compares the height of a potential new release D-7 (right) with CSM3. A product of irradiation or mutation breedings. D7 is identical in all characteristics to Calrose except it is about 14 inches shorter and has mush more lodging resistance.