The induced SDI mutant and other useful mutant genes in modern rice varieties

Induced mutation was accelerated in the USA with the release in California in 1976 of Calrose 76, the nation's first semidwarf table rice variety. Success was due not only to induction of mutants but also to their evaluation and integration into cross-breeding programs. Thus the evaluation of Calrose 76 showed that its sdl gene was allelic to sdl in the indica Green Revolution varieties DGWG, TN(1) and IR8, and that semidwarfism conferred a yield advantage of 14% over the 6mt/ha yield level of the tall japonicas. Immediate integration of the Calrose 76 source of semidwarfism into cross-breeding has resulted in 25 semidwarf varieties that trace their ancestral source of semidwarfism to Calrose 76: 13 in California, 10 in Australia, and 2 in Egypt. Calrose 76 ancestry also appears in the pedigrees of numerous additional California cultivars derived from crossing the Calrose 76 source with the IR8 source of semidwarfism. In the late 1990s 12 semidwarf mutants were induced in tall tropical japonica varieties at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Arkansas. The semidwarfing gene in each of these 12 germplasms was found to be nonallelic to sdl. Although selected for productivity, none of the 12 consistently showed yield increases typical of sd1 sources. The sdl source, whether from induced mutation or from the indica source, is truly associated with enhanced productivity. Other induced mutants were found for early flowering, low phytic acid, giant embryo, and marker genes such as gold leaf and extreme dwarfism. The early flowering mutants were recovered in temperate japonicas, in tropical japonicas, and most recently in indicas. The early flowering indica mutants are quite interesting since they provide high yielding or blast disease-resistant indica germplasm which will mature in the USA. (author)