Rice Cultivar FRC-22 Breeding via Cytoplasmic Male Sterility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current rice breeding programs face challenges in developing stable, high-yielding rice cultivars with desirable traits such as herbicide resistance, disease resistance, and improved nutritional quality, while maintaining optimal cooking characteristics and adaptability to various environmental conditions.
Innovation Solution
The development of the rice cultivar FRC-22, which can be used in crossing methods to produce hybrid seeds with superior characteristics, including single gene conversions for traits like herbicide resistance, disease resistance, and enhanced nutritional quality, along with regenerable tissue cultures capable of producing plants with consistent physiological and morphological characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If breeders develop new rice cultivars with superior traits through crossing and selection, then grain yield and resistance to diseases are improved, but the breeding process requires extensive time and multiple generations of selection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs preliminary action by pre-establishing male-sterile lines and maintaining them in a ready state before crossing is needed. The male-sterile lines are developed and characterized in advance, allowing breeders to immediately perform crosses without time-consuming sterilization procedures during the breeding process. This pre-preparation significantly reduces the overall breeding timeline while maintaining disease resistance traits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes self-service through cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), where the plant's own cytoplasm automatically prevents self-pollination. The female parent lines carry nuclear restorer genes that can restore fertility in the F1 generation, but the initial cross is enabled by the self-sterilizing cytoplasmic mechanism. This biological self-service eliminates the need for manual emasculation or other time-intensive sterilization procedures.
2Adaptability or versatility
If breeders use traditional crossing methods to develop hybrid rice, then genetic diversity and trait combination are improved, but the complexity of managing male-sterile lines and crossing procedures increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the male sterility function from the breeding process by utilizing cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) as a standalone, inheritable trait. The male-sterile cytoplasm is separated into distinct female parent lines, allowing breeders to work with predetermined sterile and fertile lines. This extraction simplifies the crossing process by eliminating the need for manual emasculation and reduces the complexity of managing breeding populations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by utilizing nuclear restorer genes that alter the fertility parameter of the F1 generation. The female parent lines carry restorer genes that change the fertility parameter from sterile (in the cross) to fertile (in the F1), enabling automatic fertility restoration without complex management. This parameter change simplifies the breeding system by creating a binary, easily manageable fertility state.
3Productivity
If breeders focus on developing long-grain cultivars for higher market prices, then economic value is improved, but the ability to develop medium- and short-grain cultivars with different cooking characteristics is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by developing a male-sterile line system that can be used across multiple grain types (long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain). The cytoplasmic male sterility mechanism and nuclear restorer genes function universally regardless of grain morphology or cooking characteristics. This allows breeders to apply the same breeding system to develop diverse grain types for different market segments, maximizing both economic value and versatility.
Data Source
AI summary
A rice cultivar designated FRC-22 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of rice cultivar FRC-22, to the plants of rice FRC-22 and to methods for producing a rice plant produced by crossing the cultivar FRC-22 with itself or another rice variety. The invention further relates to hybrid rice seeds and plants produced by crossing the cultivar FRC-22 with another rice cultivar. The invention further relates to methods for producing a rice plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic plants produced by that method and to methods for producing other rice cultivars derived from rice cultivar FRC-22.