Comparison of the anther culture and conventional breeding lines in rice and a new elite line 'Chikushi 26' developed by the anther culture method

Doubled haploid (DH) lines by using an anther culture technique and conventional breeding (CB) lines of rice were compared for grain yield and palatability. No difference was found between the mean heading date of the DH and CB lines. The mean yield of the DH lines was generally lower than that of the CB lines. The population size in the CB lines was much larger than that in the DH lines. During selections of the CB lines, yield was not measured, but the selections by observation for good plant type must have resulted into a high yield of the CB lines. No difference was found between the mean palatability of the DH and CB lines. During selections of the CB lines, no selection for palatability was conducted and only selection by observation for grain appearance was conducted, which had little effect on palatability. To obtain high-yield lines, it is necessary to culture more anthers or to increase the efficiency of each process of anther culture and select the DH lines from a large population size. A highly palatable line, Chikushi 26, was developed by anther culture.