This study was done to understand the G x E interaction of rice blast reaction for Japonica high quality rice varieties and to observe blast pattern for high quality varieties. Twenty one percent of the total sum of squares (SST) in blast reaction data of high quality Japonica varieties is attributed to genotype (G) by environment (E) interaction variation. This portion of blast response is higher than 8～12% of G x E effect in blast severity data obtained from various ecotypes of rice varieties. Blast response scores obtained from high quality Japonica varieties group were more severely affected by environment condition than mixed groups with Japonica and Indica varieties. Interaction Principal Component Analysis (IPCA) scores obtained from AMMI analysis for the leaf blast response implied variation of G x E interaction. Correlation analysis suggested that IPCA1 was associated with latitude, maximum mean temperature, precipitation and mean cloud amount. IPCA2 was associated with mean relative humidity, and IPCA3 was associated with precipitation and minimum relative humidity. Pattern analysis generated nine genotype clusters according to blast reaction over 11 regions. Collectively, the A, B, C, and D groups were susceptible to rice blast, where as the E, F, G, H, and I groups were relatively resistant to rice blast through multi-location blast nursery test. Relationship between the identified genes of high quality varieties and blast scores at each test site in the level of group could be analyzed based on the results from G x E Interaction analysis.

A new chestnut cultivar, “Mipung” was released from Korean native chestnut trees by chestnut laboratory of the Korea Forest Research Institute (KFRI) in 2006. This cultivar was selected first from a natural population in 1984, and the preliminary, advanced, and regional yield trials for evaluation were carried out from 1985 to 2005. “Mipung” is a late-ripening cultivar, and its optimal ripening date is late September. It has good nut quality for eating raw and processing. Its average nut weight is 27.3 g, much heavier than that of the check cultivar, “Arima”. It had also been identified to have resistance to chestnut blight disease and chestnut gall wasp threatening to chestnut trees. The average yield of 8 year-old “Mipung” was 8.8kg per tree, which was superior to that of “Arima”.