Skip to main content

Discovery that Connects

Science-based innovation for a changing world

High resolution phenotyping reveals genetic sources of panicle structure in rice

rice-lab
Susan McCouch (SIPS Section of Plant Breeding & Genetics) and colleagues analyze rice phenotypes

Rice is a staple crop for billions of people. By optimizing the size and branching pattern of the rice inflorescence, or panicle, rice breeders can potentially generate significant improvements in yield and grain quality. Susan McCouch and colleagues report in Nature Communications the identification of genetic loci associated with different panicle traits. The study is remarkable for its scale which involved assessing 49 observable traits from over 3400 images of rice panicles from 242 diverse lines of rice grown in the field. Association of these traits with 700,000 single nucleotide genome sequence variations (known as polymorphisms) led to identification of genetic loci contributing to panicle structure.

In contrast to some traits which are controlled by a small number of genes, many genetic loci contribute to panicle structure. Improvements of rice yield and quality through changes in panicle associated traits will likely involve introgressing multi-gene regions that span multiple beneficial alleles.

See also:

Panicle phenotyping in O. sativa. Photographs from different accessions with extreme panicle phenotypes, depicted in relative scale, highlight the range of phenotypic diversity wi thin the panel. See article
Panicle phenotyping in O. sativa. Photographs from different accessions with extreme panicle phenotypes, depicted in relative scale, highlight the range of phenotypic diversity within the panel. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26841834
Skip to toolbar