Rice molecular breeding at PhilRice

Biotechnology is one of the essential components of a food security strategy that the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is strongly pursuing. The institute's biotechnology research strategy is to derive as much benefits as possible from the biotechnological research activities of laboratories around the world, and concentrate on areas of special interest to the Philippines. The biotechnology research at PhilRice are then focused towards solving specific problems in the Philippines including the development of rice varieties adapted to Philippine conditions with pest and disease resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses. The biotechnology research focus are currently on the following applications: a) Utilization of molecular marker technology to map agronomically important traits in rice such as yield components, resistance to rice tungro virus, green leafhopper, brown planthopper, and to develop/apply molecular marker aided selection techniques in rice improvement; b)Utilization of in vitro techniques in the development of lines with tolerance to adverse conditions (cold, salinity, drought) and improved grain quality; c) Molecular cloning of agronomically important genes like tungro resistance; d) Genetically engineer rice plants with resistance to bacterial leaf blight (BLB), blast, sheath blight, stemborer and tungro; and e) Transfer resistance genes (tungro, sheath blight, stemborer) from wild species to cultivated backgrounds. (Résumé d'auteur