Conservation of Rice Genetic Resources for Food Security

Abstract

In the Philippines, rice is a primary agricultural crop and major caloric food source of Filipinos. Rice is produced in all of this archipelagic country's provinces, wherein total production (~18.4 million MT) is ranked eighth in the world. PhilRice was established as a dedicated research and development arm to propel sustained rice yield growth and stability toward selfsufficient production. Supporting its rice varietal improvement program is its Gene bank, a national repository of local-and foreign-sourced rice genetic materials. Currently, there are 14,388 rice accessions conserved at PhilRice Gene bank and 44% of which are landraces and traditional rice varieties. To date, 89% of the accessions have been Phenotypically characterized. To make these genetic materials desirable parent lines for rice breeding programs, a more comprehensive phenotypic characterization and evaluation of responses to various stresses remains to be done. A gene-bank's capacity to explore genetic potential of its holdings using molecular technology advances could pinpoint important traits in potential parent lines that are valuable in developing better rice varieties. The bottom line among the challenges of rice gene banking is striking a balance between fund resource availability and undertaking the numerous core research activities, including collection, conservation, documentation, characterization, evaluation, distribution and dissemination of rice genetic materials.

Securing Diversity for Food Security: The Case of Conservation and Use of Rice Genetic Resources

“…Although genebanks exist as germplasm repositories, farmers and farmers' groups, or organizations also exert efforts to save seeds of crop species and have been custodians of landraces and traditional varieties as well [7,8]. Additionally, genebanks exist to conserve the genetic diversity of wild and cultivated plants that people rely on as a source of food, fuel, and fiber [3].…”

“…Smallholder farmers have contributed to and unknowingly preserved the diversity of rice genetic resources throughout time as they cultivated, selected, and nurture their favorite cultivars owing to favorable yield and quality of product. These cultivars comprised of landraces and traditional varieties are vast sources of important genetic traits that can further improve future rice varieties [8]. Historical accounts on rice breeding, for instance, show the discovery and development of high-yielding cultivars that can withstand environmental stresses, such as varieties having excellent genes for submergence tolerance and having significant yield increases owing to NAL1 allele [8].…”

“…These cultivars comprised of landraces and traditional varieties are vast sources of important genetic traits that can further improve future rice varieties [8]. Historical accounts on rice breeding, for instance, show the discovery and development of high-yielding cultivars that can withstand environmental stresses, such as varieties having excellent genes for submergence tolerance and having significant yield increases owing to NAL1 allele [8]. One variety dubbed miracle rice, IR8 released in 1966 served as a source of desirable traits and reportedly is associated to 92% of the 67 rice varieties released in the Philippines between 1960 and 1994 and that the varieties have 57 more parental lines in commonality [26].…”

<strong>When water runs dry and temperature heats up: </strong><strong>Understanding the mechanisms in rice tolerance to drought and </strong><strong>high temperature stress conditions</strong>

“…Prior studies have shown that landraces and traditional cultivated rice varieties collected from farmers have considerable phenotypic variabilities ( Figure 4A) and tolerance to drought and high temperature (Ferrer, 2015, Rabara et al, 2015a, Rabara et al, 2014a. Assessment of phenotypic diversity of 307 Philippine farmer-cultivated rice cultivars using a Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H') (Rabara et al, 2014a) showed low (average H'=0.45) and high (average H'= 0.73) diversity in qualitative and quantitative traits, respectively ( Figure 4B).…”

Morphological variability of Indonesian rice germplasm and the associated SNP markers

“…A well characterized germplasm with genetic different could be useful for their effective utilization. Genetic characterization at morphological and molecular level will enable rice breeders to exploit genotypic diversity for conservation and further crop improvement (Thomson et al, 2007;Juansa et al, 2012;Rabara et al, 2015).…”