成果の概要

Our Project aims to develop cultivars suitable for Madagascar agro-ecological conditions. For this purpose, crosses between identified donors and local Malagasy were performed, and now they are being evaluated in farmer’s fields of several rice producing areas of Madagascar. I have, therefore, traveled to Madagascar from 2022 April to May to conduct the harvest and evaluation of field experiments for a cross population from the donor GP1103 and the local variety X265. The objectives of this experiment were to a) confirm the effect of a previously reported total panicle QTL (qLFT5 and qLFT11) under field condition; and b) select breeding lines on-farm accompanied with marker assisted selection. The harvest was performed according to their maturity. Parameters evaluated were: plant height, tiller number, and panicle number. Straw and panicle were brought to the laboratory to obtain their dry weight. DNA for each line was extracted, and PCR using allele-specific markers for each QTL was carried out. Elite breeding lines were selected based on marker assisted selection and on-farm performance. In addition, a hand-on training in crossing, and allele genotyping for marker assisted selection was successfully conducted with counterpart researchers.