Development of the “Third-Generation” Hybrid Rice in China

• Main Authors: Haiyang Wang, Xing Wang Deng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018-12-01
• Series: Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1672022918304327

Rice is a major cereal crop for China. The development of the “three-line” hybrid rice system based on cytoplasmic male sterility in the 1970s (first-generation) and the “two-line” hybrid rice system based on photoperiod- and thermo-sensitive genic male-sterile lines (second-generation) in the 1980s has contributed significantly to rice yield increase and food security in China. Here we describe the development and implementation of the “third-generation” hybrid rice breeding system that is based on a transgenic approach to propagate and utilize stable recessive nuclear male sterile lines, and as such, the male sterile line and hybrid rice produced using such a system is non-transgenic. Such a system should overcome the intrinsic problems of the “first-generation” and “second-generation” hybrid rice systems and hold great promise to further boost production of hybrid rice and other crops.