Mutation Breeding of a N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU)-Induced Rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. Indica) Population for the Yield Attributing Traits

Difficulties in breeding new rice cultivars that have a high yield, are acceptable quality, and are tolerant to environmental stresses have been the major constraint of rice production in many developing countries, as these traits are determined by multiple genes associated with complicated and uncontrollable gene segregations.Furthermore, the gene/QTL (quantitative trait locus) introduced to the cultivar is unstable due to the interaction among the active genes, which determine the phenotypic performance, not yet been well understood or controllable. In this study, the N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU)-induced mutation was applied to the heterozygote of the F-1 generation from the cross between TBR1(female) and KD18 (male parent). The phenotype and genotype of the M-2 and M-3 generations were evaluated and showed that the mutant population phenotypes, including the plant height, semi-dwarfism, amylose content, protein content, gel consistency, grain yield, and spikelet fertility, varied. Interestingly, no segregation among the genotypes in the M-2 and M-3 generations was observed, while the genotypes of the control population were either paternally inherited or indeterminable when using 28 polymorphism simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers that were identified on parental lines from 200 markers. The MNU-induced mutation caused maternal inheritance in the segregating populations, as primarily important agronomic traits were maternally succeeded from the female line TBR1. The findings of this study indicated that, through the use of MNU, the breeding of rice cultivars with close genetic backgrounds (similarity coefficient = 0.52) could be shortened by the maternal control of important qualities, such as pest and disease resistance and high yield, thus contributing to sustainable rice production for rice farmers. Further examination of rice cultivars with a greater difference in the genetic background should be subsequently conducted.