Genomic Techniques Can Streamline Breeding for Grain Quality

By Rami Jameel

Small grains researcher Juan David Arbelaez-Velez knows the secret to making perfect rice — and it’s not about how you cook it. Arbelaez and his team are investigating the genetic blueprint that determines different grain attributes such as appearance, cooking time, and texture. Their paper, published in The Plant Genome, offers a strategy that will help breeders improve grain quality holistically, while cutting costs and saving time.

“Sometimes a variety is so productive that breeders will overlook some of its flaws. Then when you get to quality testing, the variety doesn’t meet the industry and consumer standards,” said Arbelaez, an assistant professor in the Department of Crop Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “When we use multi-trait genetic approaches, we take advantage of all the available information — whole genome DNA, agronomic traits like yield, maturity, and plant height, in addition to secondary quality traits, like starch content, grain size, color, and appearance.”

Developing better rice

The global demand for high-quality rice is increasing, Arbelaez says, and rice breeders have to keep up. Growers want productive varieties that grow well and can survive drought and pests. Millers want rice grains that will survive the hulling and polishing processes without breaking, while consumers look for rice that will cook easily and have a pleasant texture.