Successful breeding of Restorer Lines of late Japonica Hybrid Rice in the Yangtze River Basin

Through the efforts of experts from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the restorer lines of late japonica hybrid rice in the Yangtze River Basin-Shenhui 254 and Shenhui 1 were successfully selected and utilized. The project was awarded as the first prize for scientific and technological progress by the Shanghai Municipal Government this year.

The key to the application of late japonica hybrid rice in the Yangtze River Basin is to develop excellent late japonica restorer lines. In this project, indica rice restoring genes were introduced into late japonica rice varieties by using the intermediate materials of indica and japonica subspecies as bridge parents. Polymeric hybridization and systematic selection were used to gather the excellent genes and restorer genes of many high quality parents.

Based on DNA fingerprint analysis and genetic distance determination, Shenhui 254 and Shenhui 1 hybrid late japonica restorer lines with strong superiority, high quality, high seed setting rate and large pollen quantity were successfully bred in the Yangtze River basin.

With Shenhui 1 and Shenhui 254 as parents, eight japonica hybrid rice combinations Changyou 1, Shenyou 254, Shenyou 1, Shenyou 693, Shenyou 10, Huayou 1, Shenyou 254 and Pingyou 693 have been selected. Among them, Changyou 1, Shenyou 254, Shenyou 1 and Shenyou 693 have passed the variety approval of provinces and cities. Changyou 1 is the first southern hybrid late japonica rice combination approved by national variety approval. Shenyou 10 participated in the 2005 Shanghai Regional trial of Japonica Hybrid Rice, showing strong heterosis, high seed setting rate and large panicle, and its yield ranked first among the tested combinations.

By 2005, the hybrid japonica rice combinations bred with Shenhui 254 and Shenhui 1 as parents had been extended to more than 1.35 million mu, of which 1.1348 million mu had been extended during 2003-2005, with an accumulative increase of 56.74 million kg of high-quality rice, an increase of 95.602 million yuan in output value and a new profit of 22.696 million yuan. the social and economic benefits are extremely remarkable. The hybrid japonica rice combinations bred with the two restorer lines as parents will become the main combinations of late japonica hybrid rice in the Yangtze River valley in the next few years, accounting for more than 60% of the popularized area of hybrid late japonica rice in the Yangtze River basin. The breeding of the two restorer lines promoted the substantial increase of rice yield and the improvement of rice quality in this region. the strong dominant combination has become an important support for provenance agriculture in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Basin and plays an important role in the adjustment of agricultural structure. At the same time, due to the enhanced resistance of japonica hybrid rice, it reduces the use of pesticides, saves costs, reduces environmental pollution, and is conducive to the improvement of the ecological environment.