Brown planthopper (BPH) is a major insect pest of tropical indica and temperate japonica rice in Asia and Africa. A major BPH resistance gene, Bph18 derived from IR65482-7-216-1-2 has been fine mapped on chromosome 12 and confers strong resistance to the Korean biotype of BPH. The Bph18 gene is tightly linked to the STS marker, 7312.T4A and is non-allelic to previously reported resistance genes present on chromosome 12. The Bph18 gene has been transferred into two elite japonica cultivars (Jinbubyeo and Junambyeo) background through marker-assisted backcross breeding (MAB) strategy. Foreground selection using STS markrs linked to the Bph18 gene in advanced backcross progenies confirmed homozygous marker alleles associated with BPH resistance. Background selection of the breeding lines with 260 simple repeat (SSR) markers revealed rapid conversion toward recurrent parent genotypes with less donor chromosomal segments (5.3-16.7%). Major agronomic traits of the progenies were analyzed and some breeding lines have agronomic traits comparable to the recurrent parent. One breeding line (S.523) with multiple-resistance to BPH and major diseases, desirable agronomic traits and grain quality has been recommended for regional testing in Korea. MAB is the suitable strategy to incorporate new genes into susceptible japonica to develop elite breeding lines.

This study was carried out to evaluate the variation of physiological nitrogen-use efficiency (PNUE: Grains yield/total nitrogen content of shoot) in rice under different nitrogen (N) fertilizer levels, and to investigate the relationship of PNUE with agr

“Jungsanbyeo” is a japonica rice cultivar developed from a cross between Sambaegbyeo and Milyang107 by Sangju Substation of National Yeongnam Agricultural Experiment station, RDA in 2000. The cultivar is early matured with heading date of July 30 ordinary

Analysis of breeding gains in grain yield has been intensively conducted in wheat, barley, oat, maize, and soybean. Such information is limited in rice. The objective of this study was to compare the breeding gains and cultural gains contributed to yield gains of Korean rice varieties since early 1900s. Two sets of yield data were used for analysis; the historical yield data of 1908 for old japonica cultivars, and present yield data in the years from 1996 to 1998 for the six cultivars, consisting of previous two old cultivars and four contemporary cultivars. The old cultivars were two native cultivars, Jodongi and Damageum, while contemporary cultivars were two premium quality japonica cultivars, Hwaseongbyeo and Dongjinbyeo, and two Tongil-type cultivars, high yielding cultivars developed from indica/japonica hybridization, Milyang23 and Dasanbyeo. The yield differences of old cultivars between the experiments in 1908 and the experiments from 1996 to 1998 were estimated as cultural gains (1.84 tons ~textrmha-1 ) due to the improvement of cultivation technology. Yield differences between the old cultivars and contemporary cultivars were considered total yield gains during the periods. These were 2.51 tons ~textrmha-1 for japonica cultivars and 3.81 tons ~textrmha-1 for Tongil-type cultivars. From these data, the genetic gain of 0.67 tons ~textrmha-1 and 1.97 tons ~textrmha-1 were estimated for japonica cultivars and Tongil-type cultivars respectively. The ratio between cultural gain and genetic gain appeared to be 2.7:1 for japonica cultivars and 1:1 for Tongil-type cultivars. This analysis clearly showed the higher genetic contribution in Tongil-type cultivars than in japonica cultivars, suggesting a guideline to be used when planning new yield improvement programs. Additional implication has emerged when a better yield response to modem cultivation technology was found in one of the old cultivars, suggesting the combined improvement between breeding and cultural improvement is necessary for attaining the maximum yield capacity of a crop.

Inweolbyeo is a japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) variety developed by Unbong Substation, National Honam Agricultural Experiment Station, RDA in 1998. It was selected from progenies from a cross between Fukei 127 and Unbongbyeo by pedigree breeding method.

"Seolhyangchalbyeo", an aromatic and glutinous rice cultivar, was developed by the rice breeding team of National Crop Experiment Station, RDA during the period from 1991 to 1999 and released in 2000. The cultivar is derived from a cross between Miyagaori

This study was carried out to develop a prom ising japonica rice variety resistant to brown planthopper(Bph) through marker-assisted selection(MAS) and backcross breeding methods. 'Milyang 64' which is known as resistant japonica variety to Bph used as a

Molecular markers are useful tools for evaluating genetic diversity and determining cultivar identity. Present study was conducted to evaluate the genetic diversity within a diverse collection of rice accessions used for Korean breeding programs. Two hundred eighty-seven rice cultivars, composed of temperate japonica, tropical japonica, indica, and Tongil-type of Korean crossing parents were evaluated by means of 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 99 alleles were detected, and the number of alleles per marker ranged from 4 to 11, with an average of 6.6 per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) for each of the SSR markers ranged from 0.2924 to 0.8102 with an average of 0.5785. These results, with the result that use of only 15 SSR markers made all rice cultivars examined could be uniquely distinguished, imply the efficiency of SSR markers for analysis of genetic diversity in rice. Cluster analysis was performed on similar coefficient matrics calculated from SSR markers to generate a dendogram in which two major groups corresponding to japonica (Group I) and indica and Tongil type rice (group II) with additional subclasses within both major groups. The narrowness of the Korean breeding germplasm was revealed by the fact that most of the Korean-bred and Japan-bred temperate japonica cultivars were concentrated into only 2 of the sub-group I-1 (143 cultivars) and I-2 (58 cultivars) among six sub-groups in major group of japonica. This is because of the japonica accessions used in this study was a very closely related ones because of frequent sharing of the crossing parents with similar genetic background with synergy effect of the inherited genetic difference between indica and japonica. A rice breeding strategy with the use of molecular markers was discussed for overcoming of genetic vulnerability owing to this genetic narrowness.

If a quantitative trait loci (QTL) marker identified in a population is applicable to different populations (marker universality), this will not only reduce the labor and cost in marker assisted selection (MAS), but accelerate the application of molecular markers to real breeding programs. Present study aims to evaluate the defined QTL related markers from a population to a different breeding population for the MAS. Four rice breeding populations were subjected to seventy-five simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers which were already identified for their polymorphism information content (PIC) in the parents of the crossings. Among them, eight markers were evaluated for their correlation between presence of marker alleles and phenotypic expression in breeding populations. A reasonable level of polymorphism for the mapped markers originated from any sources of rice accessions was observed between crosses of any sources (marker repeatability). However, correlation between presence of markers and expression of the traits in rice breeding populations was not significant except for minor portion of traits and markers examined (failure of marker universality). In the present study, various strategies were discussed to develop new markers with universality of breeding application.

Korean Rice Breeding Information Management System (KRBIMS) is a database and its management system that provides integrated management of the information on rice breeding generation from the crossing parents to the released varieties. It is also a decisi